by Steve Hays
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
Over the years I've done hundreds of posts on the problem of evil. In this post I'd like to summarize some of that material, as well as arranging it in a logical relationship. The purpose of this post is not to reargue all my contentions, but state them in compact, logical fashion. The supporting material is to be found in my many posts on the subject.
It's possible that I've forgotten some of my own arguments.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Over Jordan........................... 8
Second-order theodicies ... 14
Serrated theodicy .................. 16
Tooley on evil ........................ 21
Where was God? ................... 28
Creation and extinction ........ 29
Premature death ................... 33
Living for God ........................ 34
Did God will the Fall? ............ 38
Dodging a bullet .................... 39
The best of both worlds ........ 40
Treble tradeoffs .................... 42
The wasteful work of nature . 44
Risk and reality ...................... 48
Blood on my hands ............... 50
Providence and Pointillism.... 51
Why didn't God create us in heaven? ...... 52
God and Corn Flakes ............. 53
Reframing the problem of evil ................. 55
Chronological time ................ 56
Switched at birth ................... 57
Is God an evildoer? ............... 58
Gridlock ................................. 60
Paradise on earth .................. 61
A catalogue of evils ............... 63
Disarming the warrior-God ... 73
"If everything happens for a reason, then we don't know what reasons are" ....................................... 76
God and checkers .................. 81
The invisible security guard .. 83
Mind-games .......................... 85
God, evil, and illusion ............ 86
Is natural evil postlapsarian? 89
Explaining evil, part 1 ............ 92
Explaining evil, part 2 ............ 96
Net result ............................ 100
Anti-theodicy ....................... 103
Gerrymandering naturalism 106
The absurdity of life in a Christian universe....................... 109
Benevolence and reciprocity ................. 113
Does life matter?................. 115
Distrusting God ................... 116
Hallmark flowers ................. 121
Freewill theism and induction ............... 122
The avengers ....................... 123
Fork in the road ................... 124
Omniscient chess computer .................. 125
I'm afraid of the dark .......... 126
Is evil privative? .................. 128
Preempting God .................. 129
God in spandex ................... 130
Craig shoots a hole in the bottom of his boat ................. 131
Hilbert's Hotel ..................... 133
Moving goal post ................. 135
Jerky theology ..................... 137
Causing evil ......................... 139
Shooting themselves in the foot ............ 141
"A God who accepts there are rapists in his universe" ............... 142
Silver lining .......................... 143
Moral skepticism and Scripture ............. 144
If I knew then what I know now ............. 146
Antitheodicy ........................ 148
Machine Gun Preacher ....... 158
Wheat and tares ................. 162
From the whirlwind ............. 166
Why I Am an Atheist: A Conversation with Dr. Stephen Law .............. 167
To be or not to be ............... 170
For God so loved the worlds .................. 172
Why doesn't God do more? 172
Life is a gift, not a given ...... 173
Would a good God prevent WWII? ........ 175
City on the edge of forever . 177
Dual control......................... 182
Can God stop evil? .............. 184
Selective intuition ............... 185
God, evil, and evidence ....... 187
Calvinism and the God of love ............... 189
Happy-talk Arminians .......... 200
Newtonian fatalism ............. 205
Must God make the best? ... 207
Is the world a brute fact? .... 211
Treating people as means ... 215
Is God exempt? ................... 218
Flying blind .......................... 221
Changing trains ................... 223
Lord of the Flies................... 225
Evil dreams .......................... 228
Are good and evil primary colors or secondary colors?................... 232
Enter at your own risk ......... 234
Last plane out of Saigon ...... 236
The real problem of evil ...... 241
Where is God? ..................... 243
Yahweh and evil .................. 245
Falling dominos ................... 247
Mantrap .............................. 258
The divine mind-reader ....... 259
What could God do about evil? ............. 261
If only I had known .............. 265
The Final Countdown .......... 266
How often does God intervene? ............ 268
Charbroiled Bambi .............. 270
Is there gratuitous evil? ...... 272
Is suffering chemotherapy for spiritual cancer? ..........272
Unforeseeable consequences ................ 273
Hard truths .......................... 276
Artificial reality .................... 281
God moves in mysterious ways ............. 283
Soul-making theodicy .......... 286
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ........ 290
Cybernetic theology ............ 292
Is it murder? ........................ 294
Friendship and the freewill defense ...... 296
Open theism and theodicy .. 297
Open theism dilemma ......... 299
Does God play dominoes? .. 301
Tug-of-war ........................... 303
Freedom and stability ......... 305
Making the world safe for murder ......... 308
A will to damn ..................... 313
Causing evil and committing evil ........... 318
Distraught parents .............. 319
Heavenly rewards ............... 321
The problem of evil is trivial 323
Mercy-killing and Arminian theodicy ..... 324
Living death or merciful death? ............. 325
Saving God from himself ..... 326
Dying young ........................ 330
Discovering God's goodness .................. 334
Sins of omission .................. 335
Did God will sin? .................. 336
Is it evil to decree evil? ....... 337
Arminian eugenics............... 340
God and Auschwitz ............. 342
Child mortality..................... 346
Doing v. allowing harm ....... 348
An Arminian bedtime story . 351
Riddle me this! .................... 353
For better, for worse ........... 356
Good-bye to God ................. 358
Kill the Indian, save the man .................. 360
"God can't stop it!" ............. 361
Is the Arminian God a cosmic terrorist? ..............364
Canaanite babies ................. 370