Evil-
Unpleasant, bad. Causing physical and/or mental distress. The pain and suffering characteristic of a 'natural' disaster or misadventure, or the pain and suffering which results from morally wrong human choices.

Evil in the context of conscious human decision is therefore contrasted with what is considered to be 'natural evil', which is the result of chance catastrophes, such as earthquakes or airline accidents. The term 'evil' relative to conscious choices by human beings is consequently used as a synonym for any extreme form of moral misdeed. So used, its analysis necessarily becomes the task of secular moral philosophy.

When the term 'evil' implies a theistic metaphysics it raises the further problem of how evil is compatible with the existence of an omnipotent and beneficent God. The Athenian philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) illustrated this oxymoronic theological problem by stating "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" Subsequently, Epicureanism was and still is anathema to Christianity.

Nonetheless, several metaphysical theories can be found to account for the existence of evil. One is that evil does not actually exist; it is an illusion. A second is that evil is a necessary part of a good whole, just as the dark patches in a painting may contribute to the perfection of the sum total. A third view, developed by St. Thomas Aquinas, (the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians) is that evil is a privation of the goodness appropriate to something, as blindness is the privation of the good of the eye. But, considering this at length, none of these metaphysical hypotheses seem to acceptably explain the existence of evil in the context of human pain and suffering.

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