Dear Dr. Craig, thank you for your consideration. If you could have met with Darwin,

how would you have dialogued with him on this

particular topic and helped him resolve the tension he expressed? See below. I have watched many of your

debates and in fact know that you've answered similar questions on this topic before. However,

I feel this nuanced version may be worth answering. My question,

and the dilemma Darwin faced, seem more related to the problem of suffering than of evil,

though I realize they are often conflated as well as in some sense related. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin, like many philosophers,

naturalists, and theologians of his time, was deeply disturbed by the apparent cruelty

observed within nature, particularly the behavior of ignominid wasps, whose larvae feed

inside living caterpillars. he saw this as difficult to reconcile

with the idea of a benevolent, purposeful creator. This kind of natural suffering contributed to

his growing doubts about the existence and nature of God. In a letter to Asa Gray, Darwin wrote,

I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do,

and as I should wish to do,

evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us.

There seems to me too much misery in the world.

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God

would have designedly created the Icnu

monidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars,

or that a cat should play with mice.

David from Canada.

I addressed this problem, David, in the projected third volume of my systematic philosophical theology.

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