Problem of Evil

A collection of 122 posts

Problem of Evil

God is not great at seeking informed consent

No, I will be not talking about the dubious circumstances involving Mary's pregnancy while Joseph was out carpenting, though I could. Instead, let's talk about skeptical theism as a mechanism for excusing all of the suffering in the world. Skeptical theism is the "God moves

Problem of Evil

Phenomenal conservatism: It seems like suffering is gratuitous

Skeptical theism is defeated by phenomenal conservatism. Big words, phrases, terminology, jargon. But also, big ideas. If you're not familiar, skeptical theism is the philosophical term for "God moves in mysterious ways." When confronted with the problem of evil (why does so much suffering exist given

Problem of Evil

Concrete thorns for skeptical theism: Why does suffering still exist?

The problem of evil is the thorniest of challenges for the theist: It is the issue of why suffering or evil exists in the world of OmniGod, where God is supposedly all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. God knows what to do about this suffering, is powerful enough to do it, and

editor's pick

Theodicies: Intellectual arguments don't eliminate toothaches

The problem of evil is the biggest thorn in the side of theism and religious belief, being an often emotive argument as to why there is so much suffering in the world if God was all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. With those OmniGod characteristics, God would know enough to know what

prayer

The prima facie problems with prayer

There are obvious—prima facie—problems with prayer. Prime problems that hit you in the face like a divinely unstopped tsunami. But what is really evocative of the bind that religious believers find themselves in is the idea that they are praying in the first place. Okay, let's

Biblical Exegesis

Jim Dailey's Compassionate Lessons on Child and Animal Suffering

Jim Dailey, the Catholic apologist's unquestioning best friend, says some real odd things. And by odd, I really mean morally abhorrent. I was recently talking about the moral obscenity that is the Exodus story, and particularly the plagues, when Dailey attacked my questioning of the morality of the

Biblical Exegesis

Exodus Sidebar: The Exodus Story Is Morally Obscene

As you will know, I have been running a series debunking the Exodus account and, in fact, this has now become a huge book project, co-authored with archaeologist Rebecca Bradley and with the foreword to be written by Assyriologist Dr Joshua Bowen. I am presently writing a chapter on the

Problem of Evil

Animal Suffering, William Lane Craig, and Christian Apologetics

Animal suffering is a thorn in the side of Christian apologists because no theodicy adequately justifies its existence. This is due to the fact that most theodicies revolve around the pain and suffering of humans and attach the blame for such suffering solely to humans themselves. In some way, they

Epistemology

Debating the Unequal Evidence Problem Again (II)

This is a continuation of my debate with Catholic Paul Hoffer concerning the unfairness in God in apportioning various people different evidences and punishing them (or not rewarding them intrinsically or extrinsically) in so doing. What this means is that either people go to heaven/hell on the basis of

Dana Horton

Does Evil Disprove the Existence of God?

Here is another guest post from Dana Horton; as ever, thanks! Does Evil Disprove the Existence of God? (Reading time 3-60 minutes) Here’s a fun one on evil and suffering:  One of the primary arguments against the existence of God (especially the ‘old man’ version of God) is the

Evidential Problem of evil

If God Wasn't Good, How Would You Know? Skeptical Theism Revisited

Skeptical theism is the theist's ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card that can extricate them from any seemingly impossibly incoherent position. Let me create a thought experiment for you. Imagine you are the last person left in the universe. Over the last 1000 years, the apparently omnibenevolent God of classical theism

Epistemology

What Is Fairness? Tackling Verbose Stoic's Mission.

In my recent series about the unevenness of evidence apportioning throughout time and place, Verbose Stoic (VB) called me out on my claim about fairness. His whole comment was much longer, but I want to narrow down to just one aspect here - the fairness. The context of this was

Church

Salvific Suffering and a Possibility of Meaning

I have talked a few times recently about the existence of suffering (or, in commenter skl's terms "endlessly") and so it is pertinent of me to mention the then Pope's 1984 letter on salvific suffering. A few quotes for you from the letter: In

consequentialism

All the Options to Explain Suffering

Quality commenter here, 3lemenope, recently provided us with his idea of the range of reasons that can be given to explain suffering in light of OmniGod: 1. Suffering is a lesson 2. Suffering is deserved 3. Suffering is a means to some other endThat's it. None of the

God's characteristics

The Problem of Evil and the Necessity of Suffering

The Problem of Evil is a well-trodden battlefield. How can there be so much (or any) suffering in light of an OmniGod who cares enough, knows enough and is powerful enough to do something about it. The answers are generally along the lines of: 1. No suffering is gratuitous -

Alvin Plantinga

The Free Will Defence: A Critique

Here is a short critique of the Free Will Defence as utilised by many theists to explain the existence of evil (the Problem of Evil). It is from Benjamin Watkins from Real Atheology - thanks for allowing me to post it here: The logical problem of evil argues that the

divine foreknowledge

The Argument from Experiential Knowledge

I love discussing all things OmniGod, that is the ramifications of a god that has omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. This God is the one of "classical theism". I have written a book compiling my musings on the matter (the reasonably priced ebook The Problem with "God"

Philosophy of Religion

God: Responsible for the Good but Not the Bad

Here is a problem that is ubiquitous in the world of theism: God is responsible for the good things we do or that exist in the world but we are responsible for the bad. Whether we look at butterflies and mountains, or someone doing charity in the world or preaching

Problem of Evil

God: Why Don't We Photosynthesise? Revisited...

I posted this video the other day: But no one really listened to it and the conversation flowed anyway. That said, I want to clear up a few things. Firstly, this isn't a case of how doable human photosynthesis is, either in terms of biology or conversion efficiency.

God's characteristics

Pearced Off! #9 - Why Don't We Photosynthesise?

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

God's characteristics

The Problem of Sleep

This is another guest post, this time form Slograman, long-term reader of the blog here, and someone from central Ohio, just for a bit of context... Introduction I’d like to think of myself as an amateur philosopher, which means I’m admittedly often out of my depth. I still

atheism

Playing Truant: The Relevancy of God

It's not so much that God is playing truant, it's that she never really turned up in the first place. And, although her classmates keep telling us they saw her walking into school, it turns out they were mistaken. Or covering for her. In fact, she&

God's characteristics

Oh, Skeptical Theism. Again...

God moves in mysterious ways. I've spoken to you previously about being at the place where a lot of atheist philosophers and thinkers often get to: where you think that the arguments concerning God are so obvious and so resoundingly conclusive that you kind of lose the impetus.

free will

Pearced Off! #7 - God Has No Free Will; This Is a Perfect World

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

Coronavirus

"Jesus Is My Vaccine" and Your Judgement, Apparently

I know that Occupy Democrats isn't the most reliable of sources, but here the protestors are hoist by their own petard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuXAKqX-ZxQ "This whole thing is a hoax". Let's start blaming Bill Gates, because that's not