1. Chapter 29
The Problem of Evil

2. The Free Will Defense
Evil is that which causes pain, destruction, and other human suffering
In order for human beings to be truly free to do good, they must be free to do evil
In order to have meaningful freedom, that freedom must be exercised in an:
Environment with predictable consequences
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3. The Free Will Defense
Why couldn’t God have created a natural order that lacked the capacity to:
Inflict such significant harm on human beings?
Why human beings and other sentient creatures might not have been created:
So as to be impervious to natural onslaughts
The nature of true human fulfillment
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4. The Cultivation of Moral and Spiritual Character
Most theists maintain that there are deeper values than pleasure:
And avoidance of pain defining a successful human life
Augustine believed that as a result of the inheritance of original sin:
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5. The Cultivation of Moral and Spiritual Character
Each human being’s relationship with God was mortally wounded
Irenaeus maintained that even an omnipotent God could not directly create:
Free beings that already had the degree of moral and spiritual maturity needed to:
Enter into true loving relationships
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6. The Cultivation of Moral and Spiritual Character
Hick develops and defends the Irenaean response to the problem of evil
Hick argues for a view of human life as developmental;
The world is the kind of place where adversity can bring about moral fortitude and pain:
Can bring about spiritual maturity
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7. The Problem of Inscrutable Evil
The Augustinian and Irenaean responses to the problem of evil given thus far do not:
Seem capable of handling all cases of evil
Worries that God would be eliminating the great gift of free will by intervening:
Seem to fall flat
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8. The Problem of Inscrutable Evil
While we may have free will, our free will is not absolute; that is, there are:
Limitations imposed by the laws of nature on what we can and cannot do
There are no goods that would justify God in allowing such evils
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9. James Petrik: Inscrutable Evil and an Infinite God
James Petrik takes up the problem of inscrutable evil
He concedes that there are evils we can see no plausible reason for God to allow:
An infinitely wise being would have access to reasons we are not in position to know
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10. James Petrik: Inscrutable Evil and an Infinite God
Such reasons might be behind God’s allowance of evils, gratuitous to human beings
Mann Gulch fire of 1949
Moral Modesty
Modal Modesty
Avoiding Moral Skepticism
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