Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A Thought about Theodicy

When people object to atheistic arguments from evil, their objections seem to fall into three groups:

Reasonable Doubt Defenses: There is reasonable doubt as to whether the conflict between God's goodness and permission of evil arises, because there might, for all we know, be a good reason for a good God to permit evil.

Justification Defenses: God's goodness and the permission of evil are not actually in conflict, because there is a good reason for a good God to permit evil.

Procedural Defenses: Whether or not there is a good reason for a good God to permit evil is really not our place to judge; it does not fall within our jurisdiction, as it were.