Philosophy of Religion Research

Revisiting the Logical Problem of Evil and Swinburne’s Greater Goods Theodicy

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Faculty Member at the Department of Islamic Studies, Islamic Azad University, Ahar Branch, Ahar, Iran

2 Faculty Member of Islamic Science and Culture Academy, Qom, Iran

Abstract

The problem of evil is challenging the belief in the omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good God. In its logical sense and deductive form, it claims that there are some pointless evils and myriads of life disorderliness with the existence of which God’s existence and his positive attributions are inconsistent. Needless to say, the reliability of this argument is based on the trueness or at least probable trueness of the concrete statement. Nevertheless, some philosophers like Swinburne have tried to deny the statement by the answers such as Greater goods theodicy. This article tries to look closely at atheists' logical argument and their alleged concrete statements, and then examine the Swinburne’s defense and its difficulties.

Keywords

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Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 13, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
May 2015
Pages 149-164