In 2010, the philosopher Stephen Law published a paper called the Evil God Challenge that tries to prove atheism with a simple thought experiment.

In today's episode, I'll show how to answer this challenge and why this variation on the problem of evil does not refute

God's existence. So let's begin with a video from the Center for Free Inquiry that

explains the evil God challenge. First law lays out the classic problem of evil, which claims

there couldn't be a good God because we'd expect the world to have more good in it

and less evil. Many atheists argue the world contains too much suffering for it to be the creation of a good God.

There are walls, diseases and natural disasters.

Horific human and animal suffering is built into the very fabric of the world we're forced to inhabit.

Isn't this good evidence that even if there is a Creator he is not all powerful and all good.

Now you might be thinking evil in the world doesn't prove God is evil because God

might have good reasons for allowing certain evils, like the good of human beings having free will.

This allows for other goods to exist, like genuine love, even though some people will still

freely choose evils, like genuine hate.

Now law anticipates this reply and he believes it

doesn't work because it can be turned on its head. If a good god can allow evil

to achieve greater goods then an evil god could allow good in order to achieve greater

evils.

Here's how law puts it.

Suppose that, after a bump on the head, I come to believe the universe was created not by a good God, but by an evil God.

I believe there's a single all-powerful Creator whose malice knows no bounds and his wickedness is beyond our comprehension.

Who believes in a god like that?

Almost no one. Why not?

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