Problem of Evil and the Problem of Hell

The Problem of Evil and the Problem of Hell are two of the most prominent issues people apply to the Christian faith. They exist as followed:

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>Problem of Evil: "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?"
-Epicurean Paradox

>Problem of Hell: "The existence of Hell for the punishment of souls is regarded as inconsistent with notion of a just, moral and omnibenevolent God."
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From here I will be giving my personal responses to them from what I know of philosophy and what I know of Catholic theology. There is bound to be more.

>How do you resolve the Problem of Evil?
God is omnipotent. The issue comes from the claim that he is malevolent. If evil can be used to form a more meaningful good/more good/whatever then you cannot make the claim that God is malevolent letting evil exist.

A good example of the benefit of evil in theology is the doctrine of Free Will. Something created with the intent of experiencing love and sharing in God's love requires the ability to voluntarily choose to love, else the love is mechanical. The chance to voluntarily choose to love implies the chance to choose to not love but also strengthens the good by making the experience of love greater (there is now acting on love because of love itself rather than mechanical purposes) and the love is more meaningful because it was voluntarily chosen.

For things outside of Free Will, I would have to default to the great article written about Pope John Paul II's comments on the Problem of Evil.
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/a-pope%E2%80%99s-answer-to-the-problem-of-pain

>But God could make a world where the good is maximized and no evil or whatnot!

This could be the case, but that assumes more about the intent of the world than we know so we cannot assume God could do better without knowing the full intent behind the world.

>What about [some evil and natural disaster!]

We simply cannot know for specific examples. There are three theological answers to what it could be though:

>They play a part into something greater (The answer from the Book of Job)
>The are done through the necessary freedom of individuals (Free Will in theology)
>The idea that even the world itself is free to some degree and God's will acts within all of it (The implication of Luke 13:4-5)

>How do you resolve the Problem of Hell?
To begin with Hell, I would like to specify that Hell is considered a place to some and a state to others but the only clear difference is that Hell is the separation from God so I will be referring to Hell as the separation from God alone so to be inclusive.

This is mainly a theological issue. I have no interest in refuting the notion that Hell is something that God puts you into as that is separate from Catholic theology. Catholicism argues that Hell is a "self-exclusion". Not in the "you did this to yourself, look what you made me do" sense but in the literal sense. Hell is voluntarily chosen and those who reject God in life are likely to reject God in death. Those who reject God in name may not reject God in essence. Those who support God in name may not support God in essence. If someone was to will themselves to be excluded from God there is no moral reason to take them out of a place they wish to be and put them in a place they do wish to be. To be against this is both rejecting the person's freedom and what the person would think.

>What of those who didn't hear of Jesus?

In Catholicism and scripture there is the concept of Mortal Sin, which is the sin that can damn you. The church defines it as having three requirements: Being a grave matter (the church defines these grave matters and why they are grave, it isn't arbitrary), being of full knowledge, and committed with deliberate and complete consent.

Moral elements of God's law are innate to us so we cannot say we aren't without full knowledge there but things outside of that rely on what you know and what you know properly.

Sin begins in the heart so if external factors made you sin then it weighs down the fault of the sin itself, possibly to remove fault altogether. This is not for us to judge, though.

>I did [some shit], am I going to Hell? Is [some person] in Hell?

I have to stop people outright who ask this. We do not know your or others hearts so it's improper for us to judge. Further, it's irrational for us to claim that we can grasp the extent of God's charity so we cannot soundly make a claim either way. We can only hope the best for them and teach the good that is in us all, which is the law of God.