The Problem of Evil
Updated 2026-09-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The epistemic problem raised by evil is whether there exist bad states of affairs in the world that constitute an argument making belief in God unreasonable. The argument comes in a deductive version, claiming logical incompatibility between evil and the divine attributes, and an evidential or inductive version, claiming that evil lowers the probability of God's existence, and the two have different force.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Test coherence: set a set of attributions about God beside observed reality and check whether they can still hold together. - Grade the argument: distinguish deductive incompatibility from evidential probability lowering so that the strength of the challenge is not misjudged. - Classify the reply: sort responses into rebuttals, defenses, and theodicies, and note which appeal to greater goods or free will.
Anchor fast decisions
If God is defined as omniscient, omnipotent, and wholly good, then no defensible evil should exist. The evil actually found in the world is either logically incompatible with that set of attributes, on the deductive version, or strong evidence against God's existence, on the inductive version, and the argument's success depends on which formulation and which evils are used.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- plato.stanford.eduhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/verified
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