Is belief in an evil God more plausible than belief in a good God? Stephen Law vs Jack Symes hosted by Vince Vitale

Unbelievable?

Premier Unbelievable?

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2024

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Did you hear the one about the three philosophers? Yes, on Unbelievable? 👀 🧠 🎙️In this episode, Oxford philosopher Stephen Law, the main proponent of the Evil God Challenge, argues that the evidential problem of evil challenges the belief in a good God. ⚡️ Jack Symes contends that there are asymmetries between the arguments for believing in a good God and an evil God. The debate examines the distribution of good and evil in the world as evidence and explores how theists defend belief in a good God through theodicies, revelation, and religious experience. Jack Symes is a public philosopher and researcher in philosophy at Durham University, whose academic research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind and religion. Jack is best known as the producer of The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast, one of the UK’s most popular higher education podcasts. His books include Philosophers on God: Talking about Existence (2024) and Defeating the Evil-God Challenge: In Defence of God’s Goodness (2024). He was recently named one of BBC’s New Generation Thinkers for 2024. Stephen Law is a philosopher and author, currently Director of Philosophy and Cert HE at Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Stephen has published many popular books, including The Philosophy Gym, The Complete Philosophy Files, and Believing Bullshit. #debate #evilgodchallenge #philosophy #philosophyofreligion #theism #atheism #evil #goodgod • Subscribe to Premier Unbelievable YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0p2OAXVoo9M1Z126B3fe3w Your support makes a difference! • Support us in the USA: http://www.premierinsight.org/unbelievableshow • Support us in the rest of the world: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/donate SOCIAL LINKS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unbelievablefe Facebook: / https://facebook.com/premierunbelievable Instagram: / https://instagram.com/premierunbelievable Tik Tok: / https://tiktok.com/@premier.unbelievable FOR STEPHEN ⬇️ Visit: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/profiles/stephen-law For school talks/media: stephenlaw4schools.blogspot.co.uk X / https://x.com/stephenlaw60 IG: / https://instagram.com/stephenwlaw 📚Books Mentioned: The Philosophy Gym: https://shorturl.at/qWTcX (UK) https://shorturl.at/HmBKk (USA) The Complete Philosophy Files: https://shorturl.at/KcQxE (UK) https://shorturl.at/v9OEL (USA) FOR JACK ⬇️ Visit: https://www.jacksymes.co.uk/ Paspsychist Philosophy Podcast: https://thepanpsycast.com/panpsycast2 X: / https://x.com/_jacksymes 📚Books Mentioned: Philosophers on God: Talking about Existence https://shorturl.at/SfRpt (UK) https://encr.pw/G5RRS (USA) Defeating the Evil-God Challenge: In Defence of God’s Goodness https://encr.pw/b4bkM (UK) https://l1nk.dev/pBUfD (USA) ------- For school talks/media: stephenlaw4schools.blogspot.co.uk Link to Jack's book @_JackSymes Link to Stephen's blog The Complete Philosophy Files, Orion 2011 The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking, Headline 2004 The Great Philosophers: The Lives and Ideas of History’s Greatest Thinkers, Greenfinch 2013 • Subscribe to the Unbelievable? podcast: https://pod.link/267142101 • More shows, free eBook & newsletter: https://premierunbelievable.com • For live events: http://www.unbelievable.live • For online learning: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/training • Support us in the USA: http://www.premierinsight.org/unbelievableshow • Support us in the rest of the world: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/donate

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Brick by brick.
0:07.0	brick.
0:08.0	Prayer by prayer.
0:11.0	Day by day.
0:14.0	In the years to come, Eternal Wall of answered prayer will become an iconic structure of Christian hope in the UK.
0:21.0	Every single one of the million bricks in Eternal Wall will represent a story of Jesus answering someone's prayer.
0:29.0	Featured on television and in national media, Eternal Wall will be a new National Christian Landmark,
0:35.8	visible from six miles away and seen by thousands of passers-by.
0:39.8	Help show others that Jesus answers prayer from the everyday to the miracle.
0:44.8	And help make hope visible for generations to come.
0:48.6	Find out more and join us on this journey now at answered prayer dot org
0:53.2	UK that's answered prayer dot org
0:56.7	dot UK Even the Theists are typically going, oh, route.
1:07.0	I've got a great design argument, I've got a cosmological argument I like very much.
1:11.0	When it comes to God's goodness, even Richard Swimburne is looking at the moral argument and going,
1:15.0	nay, that's not a good argument.
1:18.0	You can say that an evil god's compatible with the ontological argument. That's what Stephen's doing there he's plugging in
1:23.7	evil gods to a pre-existing argument but theists don't begin there
1:28.0	theists don't begin by assuming God's good or hypothesizing that's good or entertaining the idea that God's good. They give arguments for it
1:39.7	Hello and welcome to the unbelievable podcast.
1:42.8	Whether you are an atheist and agnostic or a person of religious faith,
1:46.9	we are so grateful that you've joined us to debate the topics that matter most to all of us. I'm your host Vince Vitali and today we'll be
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Premier Unbelievable?, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Premier Unbelievable? and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.