The Evidential Argument from Evil [Paperback]

Is evil evidence against the existence of God? Even if God and evil are compatible, it remains hotly contested whether evil renders belief in God unreasonable. The Evidential Argument from Evil presents five classic statements on this issue by eminent philosophers and theologians and places them in dialogue with eleven original essays reflecting new thinking by these and other scholars. The volume focuses on two versions of the argument. The first affirms that there is no reason for God to permit either certain specific horrors or the variety and profusion of undeserved suffering. The second asserts that pleasure and pain, given their biological role, are better explained by hypotheses other than theism.

Contributors include William P. Alston, Paul Draper, Richard M. Gale, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Alvin Plantinga, William L. Rowe, Bruce Russell, Eleonore Stump, Richard G. Swinburne, Peter van Inwagen, and Stephen John Wykstra.

DANIEL HOWARD-SNYDER is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Seattle Pacific University.

Preface
Introduction: The Evidential Argument from Evil/Daniel Howard-Snyder
The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism/William L. Rowe
Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists/Paul draper
Some Major Strands of Theodicy/Richard G. Swinburne
Aquinas on the Sufferings of Job/Eleonore Stump
Epistemic Probability and Evil/Alvin Plantinga
The Inductive Argument from evil and the Human Cognitive Condition/William P. Alston
Rowe?s Noseeum Arguments from Evil/Stephen Wypkstra
The Problem of Evil, the Problem of Air, and the Problem of Silence/Peter van Inwagen
The Skeptical Theist/Paul Draper
Defenseless/Bruce Russell
Some Difficulties in Theistic Treatments of Evil/Richard Gale
Reflections on the Essays of Draper, Russell, and Gale/Peter van Inwagen
On being Evidentially Challenged/Alvin Plantinga
The Evidential Argument from Evil: A Second Look/William L. Rowe
The Argument from lÓQ