1. The Problem of Evil I Considering some examples, framing the argument.

2. Goya: Executions of the 3 rd of May

3. Fyodor Dostoevsky Russian Novelist, 1821- 1881. Commissioned as an engineering officer in the Russian Army. Arrested an imprisoned in 1849 for belonging to a liberal group, subjected to a mock execution, then exiled to Siberia. Orthodox believer.

4. Rebellion Some vivid examples, focusing on children. (Why children?) From executions to beatings to grotesque abuse to the General. Is the knowledge of good and evil worth this price? What does Ivan say here? Can God ‘make it OK’ after the fact? What does Ivan say about this? What is rebellion?

5. So, what’s the problem? The ‘perfect God’ (= the theistic God): –Omniscient. (Knows everything.) –Omnipotent. (Can do anything.) –Perfectly benevolent. (Wants only the best for all.) The challenge: –Look at the world around us: are the evils we see there compatible with such a God?

6. An early argument from evil Epicurus: –If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly benevolent, then God can prevent all evils, God knows about all evils, and God wants to prevent all evils. –But there are evils. –So there is no omnipotent, omniscient and perfectly benevolent God.

7. Theistic explanations of evil 1.Necessary evils: If God is limited by logic and some evils are logically inevitable, then there will be evils despite God. 2.Evils that are necessary means to greater goods: If there are goods that can only be achieved by allowing/creating evils, and the goods ‘outweigh’ those evils, God could be right to allow those evils. 3.Evils that are not ‘God’s fault’: If some aspects of the world are not fixed by God, but by some other (imperfect) co-creator, evils could result from those imperfections. (links to 2, here) 4.A radical response: There are no evils.