Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T04:38:19.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE THEODICY TRAP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2016

Steven M. Cahn
Get access

Abstract

A theodicy is shaky if it explains only some evils but not all. For if certain possible evils are inconsistent with the existence of God, then their occurrence would disprove theism. But if a theodicy offers a justification for all possible evils, then it leads into a trap. After all, if God's existence is compatible with every horrible occurrence imaginable, why should belief in God afford any comfort?

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 15 , Issue 44 , Autumn 2016 , pp. 23 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Hume, David, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and the Natural History of Religion (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 96 Google Scholar. Spelling and punctuation updated.

2 Psalms 23:4. The translation is from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1985)Google Scholar.

3 Swinburne, Richard, Is There a God? (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 96 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 102, 113.

4 Numbers 6:24–26.