15. Problem of Evil

Click here to hear episode #15.

The Problem of Evil stands out as the premiere argument against the existence of God. In this episode I critically analyze this argument and offer some possible explanations for the existence of evil in the world. For the book review I take a look at Jesus Under Fire by Michael Wilkins and J.P. Moreland. For the audience question I analyze whether the arguments for God’s existence are too complicated.

See the full transcript.

  1. Hi,

    I’m a weak atheist and I like listening to your podcast. You made the best argument I heard against “The Problem of Evil” argument, yet I can’t escape these two problems:

    1. Most of your arguments sound very similar to the arguments from an abused spouse in defense of the abuser: “He is a good man”, “He has to beat me”, “It’s my fault”, “It’s for my own good”.

    2. Your arguments fail to address animal suffering. The world is set-up so that most life has to eat other life, causing extreme suffering, in order to survive. I can’t see how a benevolent creator would design such a world.
    — Richard    Jun 2, 08:00 AM    #

  2. Kyle, I loved the show, but the transcript won’t show up for me. Is it uploaded? There was one particular point you made that I really liked.


    — John Foxe    Sep 19, 04:56 PM    #

  3. Hello,

    Thanks for a thoughtful treatment of the “Problem of Evil.” I agree with the difficulty of logically proving evil proves God does not exist. But I don’t think that’s how most atheists frame the problem. Rather, I think evil makes it unlikely that a theistic God along the lines of the Christian faith exists. That is a different question.

    If you had no other preconceptions about God and simply looked at evil and suffering in the world, would you take that as evidence for or against an all-powerful loving God? I think most people would take it as strong evidence against. Of course one can look at other lines of evidence, but I think an honest account of the problem of evil concludes it argues strongly against the existence of a loving God.

    Using the abusive spouse analogy above, it’s possible that a man who beat and tormented his wife is a perfectly moral and loving man. But based on the existence of abuse alone, few would make that bet.

    There is also a problem in your argument for why some evil serves a good end. You use the example of people putting criminals in prison (which causes harm for a greater good). Yet later you say that God cannot restrict evil because of the free will problem. Yet that is exactly what prison does — it restricts free will. If you find prisons an acceptable argument for why evil can be justified, shouldn’t you also acknowledge them as showing why limiting free will can be justified?

    I still find the problem of evil strongly argues against the existence of a Christian-type God. Most of the arguments I hear countering this view strike me as fairly intellectual and disconnected with reality. The Plantinga argument that angels might cause earth quakes is a perfect example. You might as well say Sauron causes natural disasters, since that too can’t be proven and perhaps God wants Sauron to have free run of the planet.

    Rather than say we don’t know why certain evils might improve the world, why not take your best guess at (1) why a tsunami that killed 250K people was justified and allowed by God and (2) why children are allowed to be tortured and raped?

    Sure, God might have some reason for this, but I am curious what specific reasons a believer might offer up why these evils are allowed to exist? Talking about disciplining children to help their moral character development is obviously a quite different matter. In the case of children, the better example is whether we would think a parent who allowed one child to torture his sibling without getting involved was an exemplar of morality and love.

    Thanks again for your podcast. I hope you have an opportunity to respond.


    — Michael Darby    Jun 28, 11:24 AM    #
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