When the Sparrow Falls

by Neil Sharpson

“The Progressive Caspian People’s Party. A footnote that dreamed it was a chapter.”

The problem of evil, as laid out by the philosopher Epicurus, is as follows: 1) It is claimed that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-benevolent. 2) Such a God would not allow evil to exist. 3) However, evil exists in the world. 4) If God does not realize that evil exists in the world, he cannot be all-knowing. 5) If he knows that evil exists but cannot remove it, he is not all-powerful. 6) If he knows that evil exists, and could remove it, but chooses not to, he cannot be all-good. 7) Therefore, an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-benevolent God does not exist.

Point 3 is false. It is an enraging suggestion, I realize. Of course there is evil in the world. Surely, if there is anything we can be certain of, it is that. No doubt you want to grab me roughly by the arm and drag me to the most impoverished and war-torn regions of the earth, to the worst slums and ghettoes, to the cancer wards and prisons and cemeteries and shout, “Here, Leon! Here is evil!” To which I would have to respond, “No. Here is suffering.”