The Problem of Evil and Replies to Some Important Responses

European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 10 (3):105-131 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I begin by distinguishing four different versions of the argument from evil that start from four different moral premises that in various ways link the existence of God to the absence of suffering. The version of the argument from evil that I defend starts from the premise that if God exists, he would not allow excessive, unnecessary suffering. The argument continues by denying the consequent of this conditional to conclude that God does not exist. I defend the argument against Skeptical Theists who say we are in no position to judge that there is excessive, unnecessary suffering by arguing that this defense has absurd consequences. It allows Young Earthers to construct a parallel argument that concludes that we are in no position to judge that God did not create the earth recently. In the last section I consider whether theists can turn the argument from evil on its head by arguing that God exists. I first criticize Alvin Plantinga’s theory of warrant that one might try to use to argue for God’s existence. I then criticize Richard Swinburne’s Bayesian argument to the same conclusion. I conclude that my version of the argument from evil is a strong argument against the existence of God and that several important responses to it do not defeat it.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The problem of natural evil II: Hybrid replies.Luke Gelinas - 2009 - Philosophy Compass 4 (3):560-574.
Overcoming the limits of theodicy: an interactive reciprocal response to evil.John Culp - 2015 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78 (3):263-276.
Josiah Royce on Job and the Problem of Evil.J. Caleb Clanton - 2014 - Philosophy and Theology 26 (1):65-95.
The evil-god challenge.Stephen Law - 2010 - Religious Studies 46 (3):353 - 373.
First Philosophical Principles in the Problem of Evil.Scott Jansen - 2002 - Dissertation, The Claremont Graduate University
The evidential problem of evil.Nickn D. Trakakis - 2005 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Natural Evil and the Love of God.Diogenes Allen - 1980 - Religious Studies 16 (4):439 - 456.
Why do we Suffer? Buddhism and the Problem of Evil.Sebastian Gäb - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (5):345-353.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-09-17

Downloads
1,915 (#4,423)

6 months
226 (#9,290)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Bruce Russell
Wayne State University

Citations of this work

Skeptical Theism.Timothy Perrine - 2023 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The structure of empirical knowledge.Laurence BonJour - 1985 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Inference to the Best Explanation.Peter Lipton - 1991 - London and New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
Warrant and proper function.Alvin Plantinga - 1993 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Inference to the Best Explanation.Peter Lipton - 1991 - London and New York: Routledge.
Theory of knowledge.Keith Lehrer - 1990 - Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

View all 18 references / Add more references