"Is There a God?": Notes on the Book by Richard Swinburne (VI/VIII)

For more about what's going on here, see this post.

For those of you who'd like to follow along, this is the book I am reading:
          Swinburne, Richard. Is There a God? Revised ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Chapter VI: Why God Allows Evil
Summary
     In a nutshell, the reason Swinburne gives for God allowing evil is this: God would like to allow greater and more fulfilling goods into our life than simple happiness and contentment, such as "great responsibility for ourselves, each other, and the world, and thus a share in his own creative activity of determining what sort of world it is to be" (85), but those greater goods are simply not possible without allowing evils to pass. For example, he cannot give us responsibility for our successes if we do not experiences consequences for our failures. Some of this is simply that physical negative events must take place for great positive events to take place, but part of it is that we cannot properly experience great happiness, joy, and good without having something to contrast it to, without having properly experienced sadness, trouble, and evil.
Christian Response
     Swinburne's reference to God wanting us to take part in creation tickled me a bit, as this is a point J.R.R. Tolkien makes over and over in his writings, especially in the writings compiled in Tree and Leaf, and most especially in the poem "Mythopoeia" (a poem written to C.S. Lewis to convince him to believe in God--it worked). 
     I cannot think that the Christian response to Swinburne in this chapter could be anything but complete agreement. Swinburne makes sense, and his proposition explains many of the ills that come to pass both in the bible and throughout history since then. Without darkness, there cannot be light; without death, there cannot be life; without hardship, there cannot be success; without evil, there cannot be good.
     I always find myself in an interesting predicament when it comes to assessing the Christian response--as a Wiccan (who is in this sense best described as a monotheist, something for which many Wiccans would not call me such) I certainly believe in god and I certainly consider myself a moral being, but I am never certain just how that aligns with Christianity and where it splits off into something else. More and more as I examine Christianity I find that at it's core it is so similar to my religion and to every other well-respected religion (though I'm not sure it is fair to say that mine is among the well-respected religions of this world, and it is likely not), and that the only real difference is how we connect with god. But then, maybe I am being too forgiving and too openly interpretive of Christianity in the hopes that it will align with my own morals.
     There is one thing Swinburne mentions in this chapter that is a very Christian concept not in the sense that it is unique to Christianity (because it isn't), but in the sense that it is necessary to Christianity: "Being allowed to suffer to make possible a great good is a privilege, even if the privelege is forced upon you" (89), he says. Many times throughout the bible and across history post-bible, you hear of people acting as God's servants, or of God acting through people, or of people sacrificing themselves to God's cause, and this, when done properly, is what I think Swinburne is talking about. It is a very Christian view of suffering, and honestly a very beautiful one.
Personal Response

     I had been particularly excited to get to this chapter since I read chapter 1, which explained that God, if there was such a thing, was entirely good, and thus everything he created was perfectly good. How then would he explain evil? I will say that in the form of Wicca which I practice, the explanation is that while there is a perfectly good force within all things, everything happens for a good reason, and sometimes bad things need to happen to teach good lessons, or to set bigger good things into motion. 
     I think this is one of the most important chapters in this book if not the most important, as it is one of the biggest questions people ask when doubting the existence of a god. Many people become atheists in times of hardship because they feel god has not answers their prayers or seen to their needs, without realizing that there is indeed a sound reason for all evils. This is also the first chapter of this book in which I have been thoroughly interested.