Philosophy / Theodicy • Difficult Questions • Advanced
Problem of Evil
Primary question: Can a good, all-powerful God coexist with horrendous suffering?
Argument map
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Common mistakes
Don't say
"Everything happens for a reason."
Instead
Say that Christians believe God can redeem suffering, without claiming to know the reason for this person's loss.
Don't say
Answering a grieving person with philosophy.
Instead
Ask what they need. The intellectual problem can wait; presence cannot.
Don't say
"Who are you to judge God?"
Instead
Scripture itself contains protest — Job, Habakkuk, the lament psalms. Take the complaint seriously.
What would change my mind? — Christian position
Demonstration that gratuitous evil exists and is incompatible with any morally sufficient reason.
What would change my mind? — Skeptical position
A theodicy that plausibly covers horrendous and animal suffering without moral cost.
Why does this matter?
This is where faith is most often lost, and where a careless answer does the most damage. Handle it with more care than any other topic on this site.
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
God, Freedom, and Evil — Alvin Plantinga
The accessible presentation of the free will defense that closed the logical problem.
The Evidential Argument from Evil — Daniel Howard-Snyder, ed.
The central academic collection; both sides at full strength in one volume.
Evil and the God of Love — John Hick
The classic soul-making theodicy, with a serious history of the alternatives.
Arguing About Gods — Graham Oppy
A rigorous atheist assessment of the whole theistic case, including evil.
The Doors of the Sea — David Bentley Hart
A theological refusal of tidy theodicy written after the 2004 tsunami; the necessary corrective to glib answers.