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Problem of Evil
Pain and evil constitute the most serious challenge to the existence of a God who is good and all-powerful. There have been quite a few answers and because many of them are compatible with each other, most people use more than one. According to the free-will defense, evil comes from humans misusing the blessing of free will. According to another argument (from secondary goods) some evil is necessary for the existence of certain types of good. For example, forgiveness exists only where there is sin to forgive, and compassion exists only where there is suffering. We see these qualities in God and can develop them in ourselves only in a fallen world. According to another argument, some pain and suffering comes from the regularity that has to exist in the physical world if we are to make rational and moral choices. Gravity, for instance, has to work all the time, even when we are careless with a ladder; wood has to be hard for both the construction worker who wants to build and the thug who wants to harm.
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