Hume believes that the existence of evil is powerful evidence against the existence of God. The evidence lies in the position that God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnibenevolent (all-good). Hume believes that evil could not exist in the presence of a perfect being possessing these qualities. If God were omnipotent, then He would be able to rid the world of the evil. If God were omniscient, then He would know how to get rid of the evil. If God were omnibenevolent, then He would want to get rid of the evil. Because it is obvious that evil exists in the world, Hume believes this is strong evidence that an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being

p the homeless or giving money to help the sick. Choosing either option would be good as opposed to keeping the money for themselves and not giving to anyone at all. However, either choice would hurt the one not chosen. If he gives to the homeless, then the sick will suffer. The sick would see the persons' decision as being evil.

One way that many theists respond to the problem of evil is to invoke human freewill. This defense says that God is not responsible for the evil in the world because humans are equipped with the ability to make their own choices. Unlike animals or robots, humans are aware of their existence and thinking. Human freewill gives humans the freedom to form and assess options. Therefore, the evil exists, not because of what God could or could not do, but because humans make their own decisions to do evil. God is capable of controlling everything, but he allows human freewill.

I would agree that the freewill defense is a persuasive response to the problem of evil. Of course, the freewill is not completely free. God does maintain control by preventing us from breaking any natural laws that he has set in place. For example, we don't have the freedom to float in the air without there being a lack of gravity or some other device to hold us up. I would argue that freewill does not only imply freedom in everyday choices, but the freewill given by God is whether we choose to serve Him as opposed to choosing not to serve him.

Hume says that "all the goods of life united would not make a very happy man; but all the ills united would make a wretch indeed..." (756). According to this, even if God created a world in which there were only good and no evil, mankind would still be unhappy. How would we even know what happiness is if we never experienced the sadness? The Bible says that we should rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope (Romans 5:3, 4). Many won

Some common words found in the essay are:
David Hume, According Hume, According God, God God, , write paper, human freewill, evil god, choose write paper, freewill defense, freewill god, choose write, hume believes, people freewill, choose evil, god create, theists respond evil, thirst hunger weariness,
Approximate Word count = 1352
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)