The Existential Problem of Evil

As noted earlier, the problem of evil may be divided into theoretical and existential dimensions. We are familiar with the various versions of the theoretical problem: the logical, probabilistic, and evidential formulations. Yet writers on the theoretical problem frequently allude to another kind of problem lying beyond the scope of the logical, probabilistic, and epistemic concerns that give shape to the various theoretical expressions. This other dimension of the problem of evil is more difficult to characterize. At the very least, it is rooted in the actual experience of evil and how that experience supports disbelief in God. It has been called a practical problem, a psychological problem, and a moral problem. ¹ Alvin Plantinga has called it the "religious problem of evil," ² and Marilyn Adams has called it the "pastoral problem of evil." ³ What is clear is that, for some people, the existential feel for evil somehow leads to the rejection of religious belief. ⁴ Although there is no definitive study of the existential problem of evil, I shall explore major aspects of it here and tie together several important ideas about it from the current literature.