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Evidential Problem of Evil and Animal Suffering

 The Evidential Problem of Evil (also referred to as probabilistic or inductive version of the problem) seeks to show that the existence of evil, although logically consistent with the presence of God, counts against or lowers the probability of the truth of theism. Both absolute versions of the evidential problems of evil are presented below.

A version by William L. Rowe:

  1. There exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
  2. An omniscient, wholly good being would prevent the occurence of any intense suffering it could, unless it could not do so without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
  3. (Therefore) There does not exist an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being.
Another by Paul Draper:
  1. Gratuitous evil exists.
  2. The hypothesis of indifference, i.e., that if there are supernatural beings they are indifferent to gratuitous evils, is a better explanation for (1) than theism.
  3. Therefore, evidence prefers that no god, as commonly understood by theists, exists.

The Problem of Evil and Animal Suffering

The problem of evil has also been extended beyond human suffering, to include suffering of animals from cruelty, disease, and evil. One version of this problem includes animal suffering from natural evil, such as the violence and fear faced by animals from predators, natural disasters, over the history of evolution. This is also referred to as the Darwinian Problem of Evil, after Charles Darwin who wrote in 1856, "What a book a Devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low & horridly cruel works of nature!" and his later autobiography said, "A being so powerful and full of knowledge as a God who could create the universe, is to our finite minds omnipotent and omniscient, and it revolts our understanding to suppose that his benevolence is unbounded, for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time? This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one."

The second version of the problem of evil applied to animals, and avoidable suffering experienced by them, is one caused by some human beings, such as from animal cruelty or when they are shot or slaughtered. This version of the problem of evil has been used by scholars including John Hick to counter the responses and defenses to the problem of evil such as suffering being a means to perfect the morals and greater good because animals are innocent, helpless, amoral but sentient victims. Scholar Michael Almeida said this was "perhaps the most serious and difficult" version of the problem of evil. The problem of evil in the context of animal suffering, states Almeida, can be stated as:
  1. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good.
  2. The evil of extensive animal suffering exists.
  3. Necessarily, God can actualize an evolutionary perfect world.
  4. Necessarily, God can actualize an evolutionary perfect world only if God does actualize an evolutionary perfect world.
  5. Necessarily, God actualized an evolutionary perfect world.
  6. If #1 is true, then either #2 or #5 is true but not both. This is a contradiction, so #1 is not true.
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