“If there is a God, whence come evil things? Whence come good things if there is no God?”Boethius · Mângâierile filozofiei · 524 · Cartea I, Proza 4
Boethius's dilemma spares no one: the believer must explain evil, the atheist must explain good.
Boethius frames the dilemma that has structured philosophy of religion ever since: if God exists and is good, where does the world's evil come from? But if he does not, where does good come from, why is there any distinction between good and evil at all? The question is not mere lament but a thinking device: it forces every answer to pay a price. Theologians have paid with a diminished God, atheists with the objectivity of moral value.
Why it matters It serves anyone who thinks the question is settled by one simple answer, showing that both camps have something to explain.