How Could a Good God Allow Horrible Diseases? | Prof. Stephen Meredith

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on March 12th, 2025, at University of Georgia.

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About the Speaker:

Stephen Meredith is a professor at the University of Chicago’s Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Neurology. He is also an associate faculty member in the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has published more than 100 journal articles, focusing on the biophysics of protein structure. Much of his work has been the application of solution and solid-state NMR to the study of amyloid proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease. He has also published articles on literature and philosophy in diverse aspects of medical humanities and bioethics. His teaching includes courses to graduate students in biochemistry and biophysics, medical students, and undergraduates and graduate students in the humanities, including courses on James Joyce’s Ulysses, St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Dostoevsky (focusing on Brothers Karamazov), Thomas Mann and David Foster Wallace. He is currently working on a book examining disease and the theological problem of evil. Other current writing projects include a study of James Joyce and the problem of evil.

Transcript

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0:51.6	Nowadays, when we think about evil, disease is one of the things that comes very quickly to mind.
1:01.2	That wasn't always the case.
1:03.6	I mean, we all always knew that disease was a bad thing.
1:08.5	But one of the things let's think about is why is it that now,
1:13.6	in modern times, disease has sort of come to the forefront of things that are evil. I mean,
1:20.6	there are plenty of other things that are equal to wards, sometimes necessary, perhaps, said Thomas Aquinas,
1:28.2	saint of the sievers.
1:30.8	But why has disease in modern time come to the forefront
1:37.1	when we talk about evil?
1:40.1	I'm going to start with a couple of anecdotes,
	...

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