Recommended Reading: Moral Evil vs. Natural Evil

“All those poor people of Pompeii…they didn’t even know that the mountain they built their city next to was, in fact, an active volcano.” – Dr. Schenk

Natural evil refers to evil that occurs through natural processes, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, and forest fires. While natural evil is not inflicted on humans by the malicious actions of humans, it does cause pain, misery, deprivation, and suffering.

Moral evil refers to evil that occurs by humans carrying out malicious actions upon other humans, such as murder, theft, deceit, or war. These actions cause death, suffering, and destruction.

Natural evil and moral evil are discussed alongside the Problem of Evil argument covered in this lecture. Both Christians and atheists ask, How can an omnibenevolent God allow such suffering and catastrophes to happen in the lives of humans? As Dr. Schenk mentions in this lecture, the Free Will Defense and the Greater Good Argument seek to justify how an omnibenevolent God could allow such evils to exist in the world.