Tough Topic Tuesday: The Problem of Evil, Pt. 6

In the post we continue to consider the evidential problem of evil.  For review, it is as follows:


Evidential Version: "It's Improbable that God could have Good Reasons for Permitting Suffering."

The evidential version differs from the logical version because the evidential version makes a more modest claim.  The evidential version says that it is improbable that God exists when one considers all the apparent unnecessary suffering that occurs in the world.

It was argued here that we’re not in a position to say that it’s improbable that God lacks good reasons for permitting the suffering in the world.

This week it will be shown that relative to the full scope of the evidence, God's existence is more probable than not.  Recall that the evidential version of the problem of evil is probabilistic.  It argues that God's existence is improbable when one considers all the supposed unnecessary suffering that occurs in the world.  However, when the full scope of the evidence is considered, we have stronger reasons to believe God exists.  Consider just some of the arguments for God's existence:

1. The Kalam Argument
2. Argument from Contingency
3. The Fine-Tuning Argument
4. Information Argument from DNA
5. The Moral Argument
6. The Ontological Argument
7. The Argument from Reason
8. The Argument from Consciousness
9. The Argument from Jesus's Resurrection
10. The Argument from Religious Experience

For more arguments, see here.

The theist can admit that God's existence is improbable relative to the suffering in the world alone; however, that suffering is outweighed by the successful arguments for God's existence.

Courage and Godspeed,
Chad

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