Introduction to God and Horrendous Suffering

Abstract

The main problem this book addresses is an evidential one: if there’s a theistic omni-everything god, who is perfectly good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then the issue of why there is horrendous suffering in the world requires an explanation. The reason is that a perfectly good god would be opposed to it, an all-powerful god would be capable of eliminating it, and an all-knowing god would know what to do about it. So, the extent of horrendous suffering in the world means for the theist that either god is not powerful enough to eliminate it, or god does not care enough to eliminate it, or god is just not smart enough to know what to do about it. The stubborn fact of horrendous suffering in the world means that something is wrong with god’s ability, or his goodness, or his knowledge. Just think of this problem in terms of who has the greatest moral obligation to help someone who is suffering. It’s the one who knows of the suffering, who cares the most to alleviate it, and who has the greatest ability to alleviate it. So, the person who has the greatest obligation to alleviate horrendous suffering is a theistic omni-god, if he exists. Any person who is wholly good would be morally obligated to prevent horrendous suffering, especially if all it took was a “snap” of his or her omnipotent fingers to do so.