God, Logic, and Big Questions
What is the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR)?
This principle says every existing thing must have an explanation or reason.
What is an epistemic obligation?
This is the idea that people may have a duty to believe true things and avoid false beliefs.
What is the logical problem of evil?
This argument claims that if God exists, then evil should not exist, but evil does exist, so God does not exist.
What is transworld depravity?
This concept says it is possible that no world exists where humans always freely choose good, even if God exists.
What is an evidential argument from evil?
This type of argument uses observed cases of suffering to suggest God’s non-existence rather than proving a strict contradiction.
What is an essentially ordered causal series?
This type of causal chain requires earlier causes to continue existing for the effect to exist.
Who is W. K. Clifford and what did he argue?
This philosopher famously argued it is always wrong to believe without sufficient evidence.
Who is David Hume?
This philosopher argued that if God is willing but unable to stop evil, he is not omnipotent, and if able but unwilling, he is not good.
What is a possible world?
This idea refers to the complete way reality could have been, including all facts about what is true or false.
What is gratuitous evil?
This term describes intense suffering that seems to serve no greater good or prevent any worse evil.
What is an accidentally ordered causal series?
This type of causal series does NOT require earlier causes to continue existing (like generations of parents and children).
What is the evidentialist objection?
This objection claims religious belief is rational only if it has sufficient evidence.
Who is J. L. Mackie?
This philosopher argued that the three claims—God is omnipotent, God is perfectly good, and evil exists—are logically inconsistent.
What is an implicit contradiction?
This type of contradiction is not obvious and requires an extra hidden premise to show inconsistency between God and evil.
What are E1 and E2 cases of intense suffering? (What examples does Rowe use to describe pointless, intense suffering?)
This is the kind of case Rowe uses, such as the suffering fawn or a brutally murdered child, to illustrate pointless suffering.
What is the Unmoved Mover and who coined it?
This is the name Aquinas gives to the being that starts or sustains all motion and change.
This argument says believing in God is rational because the potential reward is infinite compared to the risk.
What is Pascal’s Wager?
What is the Free Will Defense?
This defense claims God and evil are logically consistent because free will makes moral evil possible even in a world created by a good God.
What is modal contingency?
This claim says that if a proposition is true in some possible world, but false in others, it is not logically necessary.
What is skeptical theism?
This view claims humans are not in a position to judge whether seemingly pointless suffering actually has a hidden justifying reason.
What is the fallacy of composition?
This fallacy occurs when you assume what is true of parts must be true of the whole.
What is properly basic belief?
This idea says belief in God can be rational even without evidence because it is “basic” and properly formed.
What is an OOMP being?
This term refers to God being all-powerful, all-knowing, and morally perfect.
What is the impossibility of creating significantly free creatures who always choose good?
This is the claim that even an omnipotent God cannot force creatures to freely always choose good without removing their freedom.
What is an inference from observed gratuitous evil to probable gratuitous evil (an inductive/abductive argument against theism)?
This is Rowe’s inference that because we are aware of apparently pointless evils and no known justification explains them, it is reasonable to believe such evils likely have no justification at all.