What is the Problem of Evil? Discuss a response to the problem.

The Problem of Evil is stated in the following question: how can God be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and omnibenevolent (all loving) alongside the existence of evil? According to God's disposition, it follows that she wouldn't want evil to occur (since she is all loving), nor would she be ignorant of it's occurrence (since she is all knowing), nor would she be unable to prevent its occurrence (since she is all powerful).One response to The Problem of Evil is given by John Hick. Hick states that in order for people to become morally good by a process of moral development, they must also have the capacity to do moral evil (evil that is performed by some agent). Although it seems that God could just make people morally good initially, Hick has a libertarian conception of free will, meaning free will is not compatible with determinism. Consequently, God could not make us morally good, because a libertarian view of free will does not account for any constraints on acting. This shows why God can exist alongside moral evil, but the occurrence of natural evil is still problematic. What good are natural disasters to a process of moral development? In response, Hick suggests that without interacting with a challenging environment, there is minimal development in behavioural patterns. Thus, natural evils act as a call for moral development, e.g. an earthquake is likely to incentive one to give to charity, or show compassion for the victims of natural disasters.