Royal Institute of Philosophy and University of Birmingham Public Lecture
"Love and the Problem of Evil"
Professor Robert Merrihew Adams (Oxford University and Yale University) with a response by Dr. Yujin Nagasawa
Thursday 4pm, June 8, 2006
Large Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, University of Birmingham
Admission free
If an omnipotent and morally perfect God exists, why is there so much evil in this world? The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham are delighted to host a public lecture by one of the most prominent living philosophers of religion.
For further details contact Dr. Lisa Bortolotti or Dr. Yujin Nagasawa.
The logical argument from evil is an inductive argument, rather than a deductive one.
We see many people try hard to whatever suffering they can, and being called good when they do that (and bad when they do not try to reduce whatever suffering they can).
We induce that a very good being would also reduce whatever suffering it could.
We also see that often it is quite possible for puny humans to reduce suffering.
We induce that an omnipotent being would also find it possible to reduce suffering.
Steven, your inductive argument can be made deductive by using the claims you just listed as the premises. Then it becomes a reductio ad absurdum because the premises lead to a contradiction. It's true that most presentations of it suppress the premises, but isn't that true of most arguments presented in natural language?
Before this thread dissolves into yet another occasion for a rambling conversation on the argument from evil let me point out that the general comment policy is that comments should be relevant to the post. In this case I would judge comments relating to, this talk specifically, Adams general approach to the topic, ride sharing to the talk, the Royal Institute of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, and the thoughts on public philosophy lectures, as relevant. Individuals with other comments should post them on their own blog. Further thoughts on comments can be found here.