Further 1 · after the twelve weeks
The problem of evil and suffering
Why does a good, all-powerful God allow evil?
Week 3 argues that objective evil points to a Moral Lawgiver. The next question is why He permits it.
See it
Shorts, slide decks, and infographics that belong with this page.
What the book puts on the table
- The logical problem (Mackie) asks whether God and evil can coexist. Plantinga’s free-will defense shows they can.
- The evidential problem asks whether the amount of suffering makes God unlikely. That is a probability claim, not a proof.
- Christianity does not shrug. It puts God in the suffering — the cross — and promises a world where tears are wiped away.
- Atheism can describe pain. It has a harder time saying the pain is truly wrong.
- The Week 3 short’s fork: if we are only animals, violence is the strong surviving. If a moral design exists, evil is a real rebellion against the way humanity was meant to operate — not an illusion and not a tactic.
Say this
I do not have a chart for every tear. I have a God who entered the pain instead of explaining it from a safe distance — and a promise that evil is an intruder, not the furniture of the world.
If they say…
“Why didn’t God make free people who always choose good?”
That is not freedom. Plantinga’s point is that a world with real agents includes the possibility of real refusal.
“Natural disasters are not anyone’s free will.”
The book does not pretend every tsunami has a tidy moral. It says God can have purposes we do not see, and that the resurrection is the down payment that suffering is not the last word.
Scripture
“The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed.”
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
After this week
Tonight · about an hour
Host this session
Open · 5 min
Read the question out loud: “Why does a good, all-powerful God allow evil?” No speeches yet.
Look · 15 min
One person reads the thesis and the points. Everyone else watches for the sentence they do not yet believe.
Talk · 25 min
- The logical problem (Mackie) asks whether God and evil can coexist. Plantinga’s free-will defense shows they can.
- The evidential problem asks whether the amount of suffering makes God unlikely. That is a probability claim, not a proof.
- Christianity does not shrug. It puts God in the suffering — the cross — and promises a world where tears are wiped away.
Speak · 10 min
Use the line in “Say this” above. Once as written. Once in your own mouth.
Send · 5 min
Each person names one conversation this week where they will try a question instead of a speech.