Necessary Evil

I'm beginning to think that Brigham Young was right when he said that "Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation" (assuming he actually said it at all; I didn't fact check it).

My reasons for believing so have to do with the Evidential Problem of Evil, which I almost blogged about before. In my post, "The 'Problem' of Evil," the "problem" I was referring to was the Logical Problem of Evil, to be a bit more specific. The Evidential Problem of Evil is a bit different, though it uses many of the same premises. The supposed problem is that, while God might allow some small amount of necessary evil, there is far more evil in the world than a good God would allow. Considering this argument, there seem to be only a few possible conclusions one could logically draw from it. Some people conclude that either there is no God or that God doesn't care about people. Another explanation is to concede the point that Brigham Young is quoted to have made: That all of this suffering is, in fact, necessary.

I understand that this is a difficult pill to swallow. Considering all of the pain and suffering in the world, from stubbed toes to mass murder, there seems to be an excessive amount of pain and suffering on this planet. But just because it seems excessive to us doesn't mean that it actually is. God has a greater perspective than we have, and He has purposes far more grand than anything we can imagine. Maybe all this suffering was built into the systems that had to exist in order to make eternal progression possible. Maybe it is all necessary to making this the best possible world to suit God's purposes. Maybe all the suffering that seems so pointless isn't actually pointless at all.

I understand that I have very little evidence to back up this argument, if any. Therefore, I understand that this argument has little, if any, merit. I'm not trying to convince anyone that all of the evil in the world is necessary. For my purposes, it will suffice to prove that it could be necessary. It's a possibility. God knows more than we do. He has considered more options than we can even conceive. If He says, through one of His appointed mouthpieces, that all of this suffering really is necessary, I am willing to believe that there is a possibility that He's right.

I am looking forward to finding out why God believes all of this suffering is necessary. I still have some doubts on the subject, personally. Yet, I cannot refute the logic behind the Evidential Problem of Evil. This leaves me with very few logical options, but I believe that believing that all of the evil in the world actually is necessary is one of those logically valid options. We may not yet understand why it's all necessary, but that doesn't mean that it isn't.