Analysis Of The Relationship Between Religion Essay

Analysis Of The Relationship Between Religion - Essay Example The consideration of the idea of God inevitably leads to consideration of another, contrary idea, namely the evil. Indeed, if there is light, there must be darkness or at least shadow as well. So, the Christian doctrine is likely to make some provisions about the nature of evil. According to the scholars, there are two forms of evil: moral and natural. The former is something that is caused by people. This form involves the concept of morality and, therefore, can occur only within the environment of the people. So, murder or incest is something that is seen as moral evil by the people. There is a different form of evil, the natural one. It occurs in the environment and people are victims of it, not the creators. For example, earthquakes are put into a natural evil category. Keeping in mind the above-mentioned idea, â€Å"the fact of evil becomes an objection to rational belief in God, at least believe in a perfectly good, all-powerful deity†. However, the Christians were able to come up with various justifications, theodicies. For example, according to one of them, evil is necessary since it makes people morally mature; in other words, the ability to distinguish between good and evil is something that should be seen as a characteristic of a fully developed human and something which Adam and Eve were deprived at first. Therefore, evil exists not because God cannot destroy it (He is omnipotent), not because He does not know about it (He is omniscient) or not because He is not good (He is omnibenevolent).