Slightly Different Evil Problem

This isn't *quite* a Problem of Evil problem, but it is related, I think, 
or, at least, I tend to think of it in relation to the PoE.

Hume famously said that we can't derive 'ought's from 'is's. That is, you 
can't infer from the way things are, to how they *should* be. If true, this 
makes rather a mess of naturalizing ethics (at least, in certain ways). 
Much hair flies, of course, about what exactly this inability means, when, 
how, if it even is true, etc.

But what's always bit *me* is that you can't derive, generally, an 'is' 
from an 'ought'. Just because something *should* be a certain way, doesn't 
mean that it will be that way.

That *really* sucks! And, actually, is rather confusing.

You can see how this maps back into the PoE. One might well think that evil 
*shouldn't* exist (period). And a being with moral sense (even beyond/aside 
from benevolence)
would eliminate it if you can. God can do anything (perhaps even the 
impossible).

Folks like Spinoza dissolve a lot of these issues by eleminating 
alternative possibilities. There's only one "is", there's no other way to 
be, thus things are as they ought to be.

Leibniz interjects a bit of flexibity in interpreting logical, 
metaphysical, and moral necessity. But again, the way things are comes out 
of how they ought to be (that's why it's the *best* possible world). And, 
in general, the solution is that we don't have the overall picture, and 
that the way things ought to be depends on that overall picture.

Cheers,
Bijan.