Part of Catholics response to evil and suffering being a “problem” that proves God doesn’t exist is to talk about Human free will.
In the Garden of Eden God did not want humans to eat from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve were told not to. However God also gave them free will and gave them the choice. They chose to go against God.
It is how we use our free will that causes evil and suffering and if we made better choices there would be less evil and suffering – it is not God’s fault.
This means Christians do not feel strongly that evil is a problem that proves God does not exist. They are ambivalent towards this argument. It doesn’t really bother them.
CATHOLIC AMBIVALENCE = GASBAR
G – Gift
Free will is a gift from God. It gives us freedom and means we are not forced to follow him. God loves us so gives us freedom.
A – Ability to Choose
God created man with the ability to choose between good and evil.
S – Suffering
When humans choose the wrong thing it causes suffering. Therefore evil and suffering is caused by man not God.
B – Blame
Humans are to blame for making the wrong choice not God. We could choose the right path which leads to less or no evil and suffering in the world.
A – Abused our Gift
Humans have abused the gift God gave them. We abused the freedom we were given in the Garden of Eden and we continue to abuse the gifts of creation that God gave us out of love. This is the source of the evil and suffering in the world.
R – Robots
Humans are not programmed robots. We are not given a set behaviour by our creator but we are given the gift of free will to choose for ourselves.
TASK – Learn each letter of the Acrostic GASBAR. Write them down over and over until you get them correct.
RED ZONE
Describe what is meant by Catholic ambivalence towards evil and suffering
Explain why a Catholic may not believe evil and suffering is caused by God but by human free will
“Christians believe God is not to blame for evil in the world.” What are the two different arguments to this statement?
Mr Fox's Online RE Classroom 