Quiroz 1

Christopher Quiroz

Thesis

Mr. Oliveri

October 5, 2017

Thesis Speech

Unbearable starvation, devastating natural disasters, cruel torture, violent bloodshed, and

other unspeakable atrocities. How could a person possibly believe in a perfect God when

suffering and evil surround us at all times? Many scholars affirm that if God is all-benevolent

and all-powerful, He should not only feel inclined to obliterate the seemingly gratuitous evils

within the world, but be required by His own nature to do so.

There are three main parts to this problem of evil: The existential problem, the logical

problem, and the evidential problem. The existential problem is quite personal compared to the

other problems, making that claim that God cannot exist because the God an individual envisions

does not align with what the individual has seen and experienced. However, the Christian

specifically can make a case against the existential problem, claiming that “in the cross of Christ

is the revelation of God’s righteous love and a paradigm of his redemptive use of suffering,”

(Adams). The logical problem presents three premises: God is omnipotent, God is wholly good,

and evil exists. The problem then makes the claim that the premises are logically inconsistent

and completely disprove the existence of God. However, many modern scholars, theist and

atheist alike, admit that the logical problem is bankrupt, for even if there is the slightest

possibility that a perfectly good and powerful God exists alongside evil, it is enough to say that

He cannot be disproven by these means. Finally, the evidential problem claims that it is

reasonable to think that at least some of the evils in the world are unnecessary and gratuitous.
 Quiroz 2

While the refutation of the evidential problem is extensive, one of its strongest refutations is the

claim that humans have no reason to think that their finite minds are able to grasp all the

connections between goods and evils, but such matters may be known by the divine wisdom of

God. Often regarded as one of the strongest arguments against theism, the problem of evil is an

argument that should be treated seriously by all those who believe in a perfect and all-powerful

God.
 Quiroz 3

Works Cited

Adams, Marilyn M. “Redemptive Suffering as a Christian Solution to the Problem of Evil.” The

Problem of Evil: Selected Readings, edited by Michael L. Peterson, Second ed.,

University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, pp. 210–231.