Table of Contents

• • Foreword     xi
  • Preface     xiii
  • Note on gender-inclusive language     xvii
  • Introduction     1
  • Aims and Limitations     2
  • Methodology     4
  • What Is a Good Argument?     8
  • Overview     10
  • Background to the Problem Evil     17
  • Orthodox Theism     17
  • The Problem of Evil     23
  • Philosophical Background     23
  • Goods and Evils     23
  • Versions of the Problem of Evil     27
  • Ethical Theory and the Problem of Evil     30
  • Historical Background     33
  • Rowe’s Evidential Arguments from Evil     47
  • The Early Rowe (1978-86)     47
  • The 1979 Argument     49
  • The Theological Premise     50
  • The Factual Premise     51
  • Wykstra on Rowe’s Case in Support of the Factual Premise     55
  • The Middle Rowe (1988-95)     57
  • The Factual Premise Revisited     57
  • The Inference-from P to Q     58
  • The Structure of the Argument     61
  • The Late Rowe (1996-present)     62
  • Rowe’s New Evidential Argument     62
  • Atheism or Agnosticism?     67
  • Rowe’s Resurrection of the ‘Middle’ Argument from Evil     68
  • What No Eye Has Seen: The Epistemi Foundations of Wykstra’s Cornea Critique     77
  • The Original Cornea     78
  • The Problem with C₁    82
  • Cornea and the Principle of Credulity     84
  • Counterexamples to C₂-C₄     88
  • C[subscript 4] and Noseeum Inferences     90
  • Cornea Applied to Rowe’s Evidential Argument     99
  • Applying C_4.2 to Rowe’s Arguments     99
  • Rowe’s Response to Cornea     101
  • Cornea and the Burden of Reasonability     101
  • Rowe on Step 2 of Wykstra’s Cornea Critique     104
  • Wykstra’s Argument-Rowe’s Version     106
  • The RST-EST Distinction     108
  • The Inference from (5) to (6) Re-examined     109
  • The Prospects for EST     110
  • Appendix to ‘The Prospects for EST’     115
  • Rowe’s Restriction to RST     116
  • Wykstra’s Argument – The Analogical Version     118
  • Analogical Reasoning     119
  • Rowe’s Critique of Wykstra’s Parent Analogy     121
  • Wykstra’s Revised Parent Analogy     122
  • Rowe’s Critique of the New Parent Analogy     124
  • Further Objections to Rowe’s Noseeum Assumption     135
  • Howard-Snyder’s Argument from Complex Goods     135
  • Durston’s Argument from the Complexity of History     138
  • The Progress Argument     145
  • Alston’s Analogies     154
  • In Support of the Inference from Inscrutable to Pointless Evil     163
  • The Argument from Moral Scepticism     163
  • Rowe’s Case in Support of RNA     174
  • Concluding Remarks     181
  • The Problem of Divine Hiddenness     189
  • What is the Problem?     189
  • Analogies in Support of RNA₄    191
  • The Case Against RNA₄    194
  • The Sceptical Theist Response     194
  • The Appeal to Human Freedom     197
  • Hick’s Freedom in Relation to God     197
  • Swinburne’s Moral Freedom     206
  • In Conclusion     216
  • Meta-Theodicy: Adequacy Conditions for Theodicy     227
  • The Evils to be Explained     228
  • The Goods to be Invoked     233
  • The Nature of Theodical Explanation     238
  • Summary     242
  • Theodicy Proper, or Casting Light on the Ways of God: Horrendous Moral Evil     251
  • Sketch of a Theodicy     251
  • Problem I: Curtailing the Exercise of Free Will     256
  • Problem II: Necessary Evils?     261
  • Tierno’s ‘Adequacy Argument’ Against Free Will Theodicies     261
  • The Inadequacy of Tierno’s ‘Adequacy Argument’     263
  • Conclusion     269
  • Theodicies for Natural Evil     275
  • Soul-Making and Natural Evil     276
  • Swinburne’s Free Will Theodicy     279
  • Reichenbach’s Natural Law Theodicy     287
  • Conclusion     295
  • The Compatibility of Gratuitous Evil with Theism     303
  • Van Inwagen’s God of Chance     304
  • Van Inwagen’s No Minimum Thesis     309
  • Taking the Sting Out of the No Minimum Thesis     314
  • Peterson’s Rejection of Meticulous Providence     317
  • Peterson on the Defensive     318
  • Peterson on the Offensive     320
  • Conclusion     324
  • Conclusion: Is Rowe’s Evidential Argument Successful?     333
  • The ‘G.E. Moore Shift’     334
  • Reconceiving God     337
  • Rejecting God’s Perfect Goodness     337
  • Rejecting Divine Omnipotence     338
  • The Worship-Worthiness of God     340
  • Concluding Remarks     341
  • Bibliography      347
  • Index     369