The Evidential Problem of Evil

The Evidential Problem of Evil

While the logical problem of evil claims that God and evil are strictly logically incompatible, the evidential problem of evil makes a more modest but arguably more devastating claim: the sheer amount, distribution, and apparent pointlessness of much of the evil and suffering in the world makes the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good God highly improbable. This is an inductive rather than deductive argument — it deals in probabilities rather than logical necessities. For many contemporary philosophers, the evidential problem is now the most serious challenge to theistic belief.

William Rowe’s Formulation

William Rowe (1931–2015) presented the most influential version of the evidential argument in his 1979 paper “The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.” Rowe’s argument is structured as follows: