s methods would seem either malevolent orinadequate). Or perhaps there really is no evil. We think of sufferingand death, especially of the innocent, as evil, but perhaps in thelarger scheme of things these are really good things that we cannotunderstand. God's ways are not our ways, says the Bible. The omnipotent,all-merciful God created the world this way because it is the best ofall possible worlds. (Voltaire develops this theme in Candide, wherePangloss rationalizes his way to such a conclusion, whatever thesituation.) Since the existence of evil seems empirically evident, thislast approach requires great faith.SOLVING THE THEODICY PROBLEM Is it possible to incorporate all three statements into a coherentconcept of God? Attempts to accomplish this task have occupiedphilosophers and theologians ever since the emergence of monotheism, butalways with questionable success. The solutions advocated by each epoch of thinkers are generallybased on the philosophical assumptions of their culture, but theseassumptions may not be ours. The ancient Zoroastrians, for example,introduced the notion of Satan-like spirits emanating from the one greatGod; these spirits are responsible for evil in the world. Somehow, forthe Zoroastrians, this compromises neither God's essential goodness norHis omnipotence. A similar myth found widely in the Western tradition is that onlygood spirits were created by God, but some of these freely chose evil,the metaphysical origin of which is not addressed. Medieval thinkersprovided a solution that more or less follows the third resolution ofthe trilemma (that evil has some divine purpose unknowable to humans),but this solution has not been highly regarded since the Enlightenment.FUTURE CONCEPTS OF GOD Speculating about what concept of God future believers willformulate requires a look at some of the fundamental concepts underlyingcontemporary thought. These concepts might give us clues about what newsolution...
