Egoism or the problem of evil: a dilemma for sceptical theism

Religious Studies 49:313-325 (2013)
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Abstract

Sceptical theists undermine the argument from evil by claiming that our ability to distinguish between justified and unjustified evil is weak enough that we must take seriously the possibility that all evil is justified. However, I argue that this claim leads to a dilemma: either our judgements regarding unjustified evil are reliable enough that the problem of evil remains a problem, or our judgements regarding unjustified evil are so unreliable that it would be misguided to use them in our decision-making. The first horn undermines theism, while the second undermines our moral decision-making. Thus, sceptical theism is problematic.

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Author's Profile

Benjamin T. Rancourt
North Carolina State University

Citations of this work

Skeptical Theism.Timothy Perrine - 2023 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William L. Rowe - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (4):335 - 341.
Sceptical theism and evidential arguments from evil.Michael J. Almeida & Graham Oppy - 2003 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (4):496 – 516.
Skeptical theism.Justin P. McBrayer - 2010 - Philosophy Compass 5 (7):611-623.
Ordinary Morality Implies Atheism.Stephen Maitzen - 2009 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1 (2):107 - 126.

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