Throughout history, philosophers and theologians have sought to understand the problem of evil (POE.) The POE arises when one seeks to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with a perfectly good God. Traditionally, there have been various theodicies, defenses, and refutations that aim to provide answers as to why God allows evil (theodicy), why we may not know God’s reasons for allowing evil (defense) or why God probably does not exist or cannot exist alongside evil (refutation.) One attempt to understand the POE is called “the privation theory of evil.” This theory dives directly at the heart of the matter. It suggests that evil does not have a positive existence — that is to say, evil is merely the absence of goodness. “Evil,” writes Thomas Aquinas, “cannot signify a certain existing being, or a real shaping or positive kind of thing. Consequently, we are left to infer that it signifies a certain absence of a good.”[1] Therefore, by itself, evil does not exist and is parasitically dependent upon the good.
In one of Joshua Rasmussen’s videos regarding the POE, he perfectly encapsulates the privation theory by defining it as such: “Evil is the departure from the way things ought to be.”[2] Think of how we come to understand something as fundamentally bad. For instance, hearing loss is bad insofar that it lacks the goodness of hearing — or how it ought to be. Blindness is bad insofar that it…
