I recently posted an argument addressing points from the Freewill Defense by: Alvin Plantinga. I disagreed with his argument that natural evil is caused by the free will of non-human / non-physical beings. The principle claim made by Plantinga is that because of Freewill actions, evil exist, and that God cannot actualize a world without ‘freewill.’ I think that Plantinga has a point about the fact that God cannot actualize a world without the existence of evils, for the reason that it would not be logically possible. I assert that Plantinga’s claim can be associated with the existence of Natural Evil, but not in the way in which he stipulates.

I propose that Natural Evil is necessary and valuable in providing agents to use free will, and not only to be free and exercise such, but, more importantly, to also be involved in improving their sole, mind, and understanding. The improvement of agents would consist of obtaining morally ameliorating values (charity, love, understanding, wisdom, mercy, compassion, rational thought, logic, cooperative relationships, and spiritual understanding and growth) via evil and good experiences. These “values,” of which we shall call them, would logically be of great value to any omni benevolent being; thus, because God is such a being, then God must seek that these values be experienced by his creatures.

Natural evils are defined as: any situation that causes an unsatisfied instinctive desire or natural need, or a situation that causes pain and suffering to an agent(s) via natural phenomena. Natural phenomena consist of any natural occurrence that influences the existence of sentient beings. It is important to note that all natural occurrences are brought about due to the existence of natural laws that cause/influence the events of physical worlds. Thus, natural evils are the result of natural laws being enacted in a physical world. Humans are also participants in a physical world, and due to that, humans are subjugated to physical laws and other natural occurrences.

Natural evils and the physical laws behind them bring about situations that cause humans to learn and create ways to overcome or avoid such situations. For example, let us suppose for a moment that there is a group of humans that had just been created by God and placed on a physical world. We know that this world, from what objective knowledge we have, must be physically composed to support such physical creatures. Lets go further to say that the creation of this group of humans is like unto the creation of humans on our world. Thus, they have been placed in a world with randomly occurring natural phenomena. These humans are also free and able to choose and act according to their desires. After some time these humans begin to desire state X ; thus, they proceed to formulate ideas to achieve desired state X. These acts of formulation bring about situations of logical thought and cooperative relationships in order to realize and secure the attainment of X. Now, lets imagine that there were no natural evils that caused a desire to achieve state X. There would be no formulation of ideas in order to achieve state X. Some skeptics would argue that if God were truly omnipotent then he could create a world that is still physical and provides the same learning opportunity without inflicting evil on humans. I would agree that a thought like that seems beneficial, however, it could not be implemented without obliterating the ability to utilize free will; unless God were to create illusions or manipulate the mind into believing that there are natural evils in order to bring about such. However, we know that if God were to create illusions or manipulate our minds into believing that evils exist, we would not truly be free, and God would also be causing deceptions; which would lead one to question the omni benevolence of God.

To better explain my theory, let me revise all that we have previously covered in the following proof.
1. If situations occur that are adverse (cause pain and suffering) to the happiness of free agents, then free agents will logically find, or attempt to find, a solution to the situation. (Premise)
2. A physical world that is governed by natural laws provides situations that are adverse to the happiness of free agents –i.e. natural evil. (Premise)
3. By overcoming natural adverse situations (Natural evil) men learn and grow.
4. Thus, natural evil provides opportunities for agents to learn and growth (experience, knowledge, spiritual growth etc…) 1-4

Consider the simplified version:
1. Natural evil causes event X
2. Agent utilizes free will to learn and discover a solution to X
3. By solving X agent learns concept Z
4. Thus X is necessary to the obtainment of Z by Agent.

The previous argument demonstrates that when a natural event produces evil or some form of adverse situation, an agent has the opportunity to utilize his free will to overcome such a situation. The fact that the agent is free is of great importance. If the agent were not truly free we would run into the problem of if the agent could choose to learn and overcome any evil event. It seems that the very existence of true free will is dependant upon the occurrences of natural events that seem to provided added situations for the exercise of free will. The important result of using free will in a natural world is that agents are able to learn. Most of this learning is the result of experience with a certain stimuli, but many would say that experience dose not provide us with the ability to learn rationalistic things such as: numbers, logic, etc… That is true we don’t physically experience numbers, however, such thought is caused and obtained by our interaction with the natural world. Thing such as distances have been measured to improve human life, navigation techniques using geometry to guide the ship, time measurements, weights, speeds, and other equations that have improved the life of agents and are at many times because of our need to overcome a situation produced by natural phenomena.

This idea could be expounded upon in the form of a theodicy.

If God is truly omni benevolent then God desires the progress of his creations. God knows that agents that are free and act for themselves are of greater value than agents that do not. Thus, God has established a world, which maximizes the possibilities of progress and growth for his creations. These possibilities provide opportunities of growth that are caused by situations of suffering, for it is necessary that humans improve by: gaining wisdom, knowledge, exhibit virtue, love, have relationships, faith, courage, and charity. By gaining such qualities, humans are able to fulfill the purpose for which God has created them. Once they have done so, they are prepared to exist in a world (heaven) that God has created that requires such qualities. Many would attempt to rebuttal by saying that God, since he is all-powerful, must be able to create creatures that have such qualities, and that could exist with him without ever suffering. This would eliminate the ability for agents to have an understanding of good. If God were to create a world in which agents lived that was free from all vice, pain and suffering then God could not have actualized the possibility for those agents to understand virtue, joy, and happiness. Especially if we are to conclude that the existence of good is only due the existence of evil. To understand both spiritually and mentally the immoral and diabolical we must understand the moral and angelic. God could not logically teach us good unless the antecedent existed. Furthermore, God cannot actualize a world that could teach agents good without evil.

Thus, in conclusion, we find that the existence of natural evil is necessary for the growth and improvement of men.

-John