Providence and the Problem of EvilWhy does a loving God allow humans to suffer so much? This is one of the most difficult problems of religious belief. Richard Swinburne gives a careful, clear examination of this problem, and offers an answer: it is because God wants more for us than just pleasure or freedom from suffering. Swinburne argues that God wants humans to learn and to love, to make the choices which make great differences for good and evil to each other, to form our characters in the way we choose; above all to be of great use to each other. If we are to have all this, there will inevitably be suffering for the short period of our lives on Earth. But because of the good that God gives to humans in this life, and because he makes it possible for us, through our choice, to share the life of Heaven, he does not wrong us if he allows suffering. Providence and the Problem of Evil is the final volume of Richard Swinburne's acclaimed tetralogy on Christian doctrine. It may be read on its own as a self-standing treatment of this eternal philosophical issue. Readers who are interested in a unified study of the philosophical foundations of Christian belief will find it now in the tetralogy and in his trilogy on the philosophy of theism. |
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Adam affairs agent Agnosticism allowing the bad Alvin Plantinga animals argued argument bad desires bad thing basic belief Beatific Vision better bring carer cause choose Christian tradition circumstances claim Clarendon Press compatibilist consequences counterfactual course create creatures criteria death defence depend deterrents doctrine Earth effects Eleonore Stump evidence existence existence of God expected value experience fact false free choice future give given God's greater happen harm humans inclination intentional action internalist involves justified kind knowledge libertarian free logically possible matter merely middle knowledge moral beliefs moral evil moral truths morally bad natural evil objectively occur opportunity ourselves pain parents Philokalia Plantinga pleasure premiss probable Problem of Evil properly basic punishment reason respect Responsibility and Atonement right to allow satisfaction satisfied seek sensations sense significant someone suffering suggest Summa Theologiae suppose temptation theist theodicy theologians true beliefs well-being wrong wrongdoing