The Problem of Evil

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Since the dawn of mankind, humans have kneelled in reverence to a higher power.

[00:00:05]Then a bunch of men looked at all of that and after critically thinking about it for a while, collectively agreed that it sounded and looked a little bit gay.

[00:00:13]So they questioned it. And amongst the many things religions claimed about God, one stood out. That God was fundamentally opposed to evil. Atheists would soon find out that this problem is kind of like an STD for theism. Some people leave theism after catching it themselves. Some people leave theism because it refuses to get it treated.

[00:00:33]Others keep [ __ ] with theism anyway because it's the only thing they know how to [ __ ] with. And some people just don't know that it exists yet. But before we get into that, what exactly is evil? It's hard to pinpoint an exact definition, and I would appeal to everybody's intuition on what they think evil means. However, I know some of you may crave a proper definition, unless you drop a comment telling me that we first have to define evil. In which case, I tell you to go and shut up, Jordan Peterson. I'll define evil, though, as the causing of unnecessary suffering or harm. Um, unnecessary by whose standards?

[00:01:07]However, it is important to know that there are two main types of evil for the sake of discussion. moral evils, which are evils perpetuated and created by humans, and natural evils, which are causations of unnecessary suffering or harm from the natural world. Now, because most of you are likely raised within a Judeo-Christian context, the problem of evil stems from the contradiction of God's supposed nature and evil's existence. God is depicted to be all powerful, all knowing, and all good. But to hold these attributes all at once requires that evil shouldn't exist. So if evil does exist then either God doesn't know about it, he isn't powerful enough to eradicate it or God doesn't desire to stop it. The problem of evil therefore has been rationalized through theodysies which to me are like conspiracy theories and fanfiction that humans created because they need to explain every plot hole God created. The most prominent are the free will argument, the fall of man, the soulmaking theodysy, and the greater good theodysy. Ironically, in spite of these being somewhat acceptable, albeit unremarkable reasons for evil's existence, I find them insufficient for explaining the existence of lesser evils. Perhaps you can justify evil on the grounds of it developing your soul.

[00:02:17]But how is me stubbing my toes strengthening my relationship with God?

[00:02:20]There's one more argument that I'd like to highlight. It's an extension of the problem of evil, and it was popularized by Alex Okconor, although the argument itself does go back to Darwin's time.

[00:02:30]Imagine a deer frolicking its way through a forest when all of a sudden a tree falls and catches on a deer's leg.

[00:02:36]Within a 5 km radius, the forest is void of any humans or rationally capable agents. The deer is therefore forced to die in painful agony as it suffers from hunger, thirst, confusion, and pain. Why would a trip perfect god allow for such needless suffering? And why is this cruelty imbued in the natural world we live in? In spite of the conflation of evil and suffering given in our earlier definition, the argument need not be called the problem of evil but the problem of suffering. Such suffering is needless and cruel and goes against the allloving, all powerful, all- knowing nature depicted in most religions today.

[00:03:10]But the results do not change regardless of the title. It is a very compelling and powerful argument. Nevertheless, my qualms with God beyond the suffering of children, animals, or fumbling that one baddy. There are many other arguments against the existence of God. All of which are compelling in their own way.

[00:03:26]But the problem of evil remains to be the bread and butter of every atheist and the most challenging conundrum for our theists. But what do you all think?

[00:03:33]What kind of responses do you have against such a problem? Perhaps you may agree and would like to expand on my points. I'm still working through a lot of these concepts myself because I find them super interesting. So feel free to discuss any points you may want to share. If you enjoyed this video, please be sure to like and subscribe for more and suggest some video ideas that you may want to see me make. Anyways, that'll be all. See you next time.