Description
Book SynopsisIt is generally supposed that the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering, much of it truly horrible suffering, confronts those who believe in an all-powerful and benevolent Creator with a serious problem: to explain why such a Creator would permit this. Many reflective people are convinced that the problem, the problem of evil, is insoluble. The reasons that underlie this conviction can be formulated as a powerful argument for the non-existence of God, the so-called argument from evil: If there were a God, he would not permit the existence of vast amounts of truly horrible suffering; since such suffering exists, there is no God. Peter van Inwagen examines this argument, which he regards as a paradigmatically philosophical argument. His conclusion is that (like most philosophical arguments) it is a failure. He seeks to demonstrate, not that God exists, but the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering does not show that God does not exist.Along the way he
Trade ReviewReview from previous edition 'Van Inwagen must be the clearest writer and the best stylist in analytic philosophy, at least since the passing of W. V. Quine.' * Ars Disputandi Journal, Daniel J. Hill *
'[a] fine book' * Trenton Merricks, The Times Literary Supplement *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Evil ; 2. The Idea of God ; 3. Philosophical Failure ; 4. The Global Argument from Evil ; 5. The Global Argument Continued ; 6. The Local Argument from Evil ; 7. The Sufferings of Beasts ; 8. The Hiddenness of God
