Student Zone
Problems of evil and suffering
The nature of the problem across a range of religious traditions,
types of evil and suffering, moral and non-moral. The challenge
to religious belief posed by the inconsistency of the nature of God
and the evident existence of evil and suffering challenging belief
in the existence of God.
With reference to the ideas of D Hume and J Mackie.
Theodicies and solutions to the problem of suffering
a) Belief that creation was good; evil and suffering is a privation
of good due to the fall of the angels and man because of the
misuse of free will, soul-deciding, significance of
reconciliation.
b) Belief that creation is a mix of good and evil linked to the vale
of soul making theodicy, including free will defence, best of all
possible worlds, epistemic distance, eschatological
justification.
c) Process theodicy: God is not responsible for evil and
suffering, but he is co-sufferer and cannot coerce the free will
of human agents.
d) Strengths and weaknesses of theodicies and solutions:
compatibility or otherwise with modern views about origins of
life, nature of God, innocent suffering, hypothesis of life after
death.
With reference to the ideas of Augustine and Irenaeus
Articles and Podcasts
Dialogue: Couldn’t God have done better?, Edition 30
Dialogue: Augustine on Evil, Edition 1
Dialogue: The Problem of Evil and the Free Will Defence, Edition 5
Dialogue: Determinism and Free Will, Edition 6
Dialogue: Faith and Freedom: John Hick’s ‘Irenaean’ Theodicy, Edition 8
Dialogue: A Jewish View of the Problem of Evil, Edition 11
Dialogue: The Whys and Wherefores of the Free Will Debate, Edition 13
Dialogue: Where was God when…?, Edition 17
Dialogue: Doing Without Free Will, Edition 19
Dialogue: The Problem of Evil, Edition 26
Dialogue: How free are you?, Edition 29
Dialogue: The Problem of Evil in Shadowlands, Edition 22
Dialogue: God, Evil and the Big Wave, Edition 24
Dialogue: God and The Problem of Evil, Edition 32
Dialogue: A Personal Approach to the Problem of Evil (2), Edition 35
Dialogue: A personal Perspective on the Problem of Evil (1), Edition 35
Dialogue: Whitehead’s God and the Problem of Evil, Edition 37
Dialogue: Theological Determinism, Edition 38
Dialogue: Teaching the Problem of Evil, Edition 41
Dialogue: Free will and determinism, Edition 44
Dialogue: Is God evil?, Edition 45
Dialogue: The problem of suffering, Edition 45
Dialogue: The Mystery of Suffering, Edition 56
Dialogue: Evil and Suffering: Classic Approaches and New Horizons, Edition 59
Dialogue: Why it is not time to ditch the concept of evil, Edition 61
TRS Chester Podcast: The Problem of Evil After the Holocaust
R4 In Our Time Podcast: Good and Evil