Gratuitous evils

Roughly: An evil is gratuitous provided that God could have prevented it without losing a greater good or permitting an equal or greater evil.

Rowe’s main argument

1. There are gratuitous evils.
2. A God would prevent gratuitous evils.
3. So, God does not exist.

The target inference

As far as we can tell E is gratuitous, so probably E is gratuitous.

Theodical suggestions and the “agnostic thesis”

• Punishment
• Is it sinful?
• Is it reformative?
• Soul-making
• Is it worth the cost?
• Is there enough progress?
• Fixing our wills
• Vision of the inner life of God
• Perhaps some other way in which the suffering is necessary for a familiar good for the sufferer
• Perhaps some other way in which the suffering is necessary for an unknown good for the sufferer
• Freedom and risk
• Couldn’t God guarantee free choices to be right?
• Redemptiveness of martyrdom for onlookers and persecutor
• Lawlike universe
• Isn’t there a good reason to make an exception in this case?
• Other reasons