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How much horrific suffering is enough?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2023

Bryan Frances*
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar, Puerto Rico, USA

Abstract

Isn't there something like an amount and density of horrific suffering whose discovery would make it irrational to think God exists? Use your imagination to think of worlds that are much, much, much worse than you think Earth is when it comes to horrific suffering. Isn't there some conceivable scenario which, if you were in it, would make you say ‘Okay, okay. God doesn't exist, at least in the way we thought God was. We were wrong about that’? Pursuing this question leads to what I call the Problem of Absurd Evil.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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