Arguments from Evil and Evidence for Pro-Theism

Penner, Myron A.; Arbour, Benjamin H.

doi:10.4324/9781315210995-10

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…By contrast, the anti-theist downsides will necessarily continue forever, always blotting that heavenly bliss. 37 See Tooley (2018) and Penner and Arbour (2018) for pro-theist arguments that I interpret as substantive arguments from non-gratuitous evil.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Anti-Theism Incoherent?

Kahane¹

2021

American Philosophical Quarterly

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Anti-theists argue that the world, or our lives, would be overall worse if God exists because God’s existence imposes distinctive downsides. Many hold, however, that anti-theism is incoherent if we assume that God would not permit gratuitous evil to occur. This is because that would entail that any alleged downsides of God’s existence would be permitted only if they are necessary to bring about a greater good or to prevent an even greater evil. I will argue that this emerging consensus is mistaken: the argument from the principle of non-gratuitous evil to the falsity of anti-theism is invalid because it trades on an ambiguity. Appealing directly to God’s perfect goodness fails for similar reasons. Anti-theism can therefore only be rejected via substantive axiological debate.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Anti-Theism Incoherent?

Kahane¹

2021

American Philosophical Quarterly

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“…It has also been suggested that any atheist who endorses the problem of evil is committed to pro-theism. For such an atheist thinks there would either be no instances of evil, fewer instances of evil, or different types of evil (i.e., non-gratuitous) if God exists (Penner & Arbour, 2018). Another argument for pro-theism rests on the idea that God's existence ensures cosmic justice.…”

Section: Pro-theismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The axiology of theism: Problems and prospects

Lougheed

2022

Philosophy Compass

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Roughly put, the axiology of theism asks whether God's existence would be good, bad, or neutral. Thus far the literature has focused on comparing theism as represented by 'Western monotheism' to atheism as represented by 'metaphysical naturalism'. Furthermore, the comparison has focused on comparing the actual world to a nearby epistemically possible world. I begin by surveying the literature comparing the value of such worlds before turning to explore a recent view offered by Klaas J. Kraay which expands the comparison between theism and atheism to include all of modal space (2021). Global, wide modal space pro-theism is the view that the entirety of modal space containing every possible world is better on theism than on atheism. One reason for holding this view is that God's existence logically entails that there is no gratuitous evil in every single possible world. I object that one potential downside of this view is that theists now have to explain how God's existence is compatible with all of the evil throughout modal space instead of just the evil in our own world. I conclude by pointing to a number of ways the current literature could be expanded, including adding different worldviews to the comparison class.

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“…Similar versions of this argument can be found in Jackson (2021) and Jackson (ms.). 18 There are related pragmatic arguments from the Axiology of Theism (e.g., Penner and Arbour (2017), Lougheed (2019), Lougheed (2020), Lougheed (2022), Licon (2021)). Some of these arguments may be related to (and may be reformulated as) pragmatic arguments from horrendous evils.…”

Section: The Pragmatic Argument From Evilmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…18 18 There are related pragmatic arguments from the Axiology of Theism (e.g., Penner and Arbour (2017), Lougheed (2019), Lougheed (2020), Lougheed (2022), Licon (2021)).Some of these arguments may be related to (and may be reformulated as) pragmatic arguments from horrendous evils. A related strategy some philosophers of religion take is to demonstrate that the narrative/worldview of theism is preferable or is more effective in reaching some pragmatic end than non‐theism, with pragmatic ends broad enough to include: which narrative is preferable, or helps us cope better, or helps us make sense of horrendous evils better etc.…”

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confidence: 99%