The evidential problem of evil

• this argument is based on evidence from the world around us
• the sheer quantity and quality of both natural and moral evil are overwhelming, e.g:

  • the millions of creatures that were destroyed by natural disasters long before the appearance of humans on the planet
  • the long list of terrible cruelties listed in Dostoyevsky's the brothers karamazov, just one of which is enough to make Ivan, one of the characters in the book, state that evil is too high a price to pay for the joys of heaven.
• the pointlessness of so much evil that serves no useful purpose, e.g:

  • Rowe's example of the fawn suffering a slow and agonising death in a forest fire
  • it serves no good in terms of enabling human free will or moral and spiritual development.
• the evidential problem of evil calls into question another traditional belief about god: that he is omniscient. an omniscient for must have known the terrible suffering that would be caused by both the laws of nature and humans.