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By Root 398 0

’ve learned anything by watching Link, Princess Zelda, and Ganondorf over the years, it’s that our actions, however small, may have a profound impact on all those around us. We’re all susceptible to bad choices at some point or another in our lives, and the first step in the right direction is accepting this fact. The important thing is to try to be powerful, wise, and courageous when the necessary occasion calls for it. If we do this, then the Triforce may not be a fictional entity at all, but instead, a bright guiding force in our sometimes dark world. The overarching lesson involved in the Zelda games is that courage, wisdom, and power are formidable forces in both Link’s world and our own, and how we choose to act on these forces can make all the difference in the world.74

Level 9

Don’t Patra-nize Me!

18

How Can There Be Evil in Hyrule?

DWAYNE COLLINS

There exists in philosophical circles something innocently referred to as the “problem of evil.” This problem (conundrum, paradox, or whatever you want to call it) arises when somebody tries to reconcile the idea that God exists and that there is evil in the world—we’ll get into the specifics soon enough. On Earth, solving the problem of evil turns out to be a very tricky process. Often it lies unsolved to anyone’s ultimate satisfaction. For the people of Hyrule, however, a satisfactory answer is much more forthcoming. After all, things on Hyrule are governed by a different set of rules than things on Earth.

The Adventure Begins …

In order to think about solutions to the problem of evil, we should know what that problem is. Before we get to that, though, there are a few assumptions that are working their way through this chapter. The first is that evil exists, plain and simple, whether it’s the younger sibling that saves over your game, Ganondorf, or the homicidal guy down the street. It’s there and it’s not nice and everyone can pretty much agree on that.

The second assumption is that when I refer to God, I’m referring to a monotheistic one of the Judeo-Christian variety—you know the type: all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing all the time. While the problem of evil can (and does!) exist in many different religious traditions, attempting to write about all of them would be a book all on its own (and I’m sure it’s out there somewhere if that’s your thing). Any other style of God is outside our consideration here with the notable exception of three female varieties, as we’ll see.

Introductions aside, let’s get to the problem. Generally speaking, there are two types of problems when it comes to evil: the logical and the evidential. The logical problem deals with evil and God as two things that are inconsistent with one another and therefore it’s impossible for the two to coexist. The evidential problem takes the approach that the existence of evil doesn’t make it impossible for God to exist, just that it’s pretty good support for her nonexistence.

The Logical Problem of Evil

The logical problem of evil was best put forward by J.L. Mackie. It works to disprove the existence of God by showing that the two ideas are logically inconsistent with one another.75 When presented with a logical problem such as this, one normally has a number of related statements (in this case, two) that are not all obviously true or false in and of themselves. The goal is to somehow reconcile these statements to prove them either consistent or inconsistent with one another. If all of the statements can be proven true they are logically consistent and can be considered logically plausible, if they cannot all be true, they are inconsistent and impossible.

So how do we solve this type of problem? The best way is to find a third idea that is necessarily true to pair with one of the original duo that will either prove the other is false or that both are true. In our case, we’re trying to prove conclusively that one of the two statements is logically possible while the other is not, thus showing our statements to be incompatible with each other. Before