The theodicy and Avicenna. First cause is abolutely good and cause of all goodness, why not also all that is bad? God must care, he sent prophets to tell us about him, but why would he care that we know about him and behave a certain way? For Avicenna evil takes four forms. Evil as a morally repugnant act, evil from a moral defect, evil by pain and distress and evil as loss of natural perfection. So, naturally everything must be good, everything flawless in it’s nature, also because the first cause made it as perfect.
Then there is accidental evil, like clouds that bring rain to clouds. If these clouds stay too long on the other hand, they will cause the crops to die. So, is evil in the first cause, is the first cause a box of pandorra?
Avicenna claims that the first cause is without matter, that the giver of forms forms things, but that they are in essence perfectly good. Since evil is connected to matter it cannot be from the first cause, also without evil the good is not good and therefore evil is a necessary byproduct for good. I do not know why Avicenna binds evil to matter, saying that to live without evil would be to live without matter. I can think of immaterial evil i suppose.
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