ATHEISM

There is no Problem of Evil if there is no deity, let alone an all perfect deity. For those who hold that every attempt at proving that there is a deity of any kind have failed because they are not psychologically convincing or logically compelling there is no Problem of Evil.  For such thinkers the only conclusion that can be reached in light of the absence of evidence and logical compulsion would be atheism- to believe that there are no deities of any kind.  For some thinkers , such as Michael Scriven, even agnosticism is not a legitimate position.

1. Antony Flew, The Presumption of Atheism (London: Pemberton, 1976). 

2. Antony Flew, "The Presumption of Atheism" in God, Freedom, and Immortality (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1984);

3.  Norwood Russell Hanson, "What I Don't Believe" in What I Do Not Believe and Other Essays (ed. Stephen Toulmin and Harry W. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1971)

4. Michael Martin,  The Gap in Theistic Arguments (1997)

5. Michael Scriven, Primary Philosophy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966).

Other arguments against the existence of an all perfect deity or any deity:

http://freethought.freeservers.com/library/atheism.html

http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/rm.html

ARGUMENT AGAINST ATHEISM

The argument against atheism are the arguments in support of there being a deity and even a supreme being: a greatest conceivable being. (See the previous two chapters for those arguments.)

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So having considered a good number of views and positions the key questions must again be confronted and , if possible, answered.

Is it possible for there to be a God that is All Good and All Powerful and for moral evil to exist as well????

Is God all knowing? All powerful?

Is evil really evil?  Is moral evil a bad thing?

Is it possible that there is a deity that is not All Perfect, not All Good and All Powerful?

Does a deity even exist?   

Does the existence of moral evil require reasoning people to conclude that there is no All Perfect Being or deity?

Does the existence of moral evil require reasoning people to conclude that there is no deity at all, of any kind?