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The Epicurean Paradox

The Epicurean Paradox is a philosophical argument that has intrigued thinkers for centuries. It is an argument in favor of skepticism towards the existence of God, based on the problem of evil. The paradox states that if God is all-powerful and all-good, then why is there evil and suffering in the world? This argument ...

The Epicurean Paradox is named after the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, who first presented this argument. Epicurus was a proponent of the idea that pleasure and happiness were the highest good in life. According to him, the gods did not concern themselves with human affairs and were not responsible for human suff...

The paradox goes as follows: If God is willing to prevent evil but is not able to, then he is not all-powerful. If he is able to prevent evil but is not willing to, then he is not all-good. If he is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why is there evil and suffering in the world?

This argument has been used to challenge the existence of an all-powerful, all-good God. If God exists, then why does he allow innocent people to suffer? Why do natural disasters occur? Why are there diseases and illnesses that cause so much pain and suffering? These are questions that have plagued theologians and phil...

One response to this paradox is that God allows evil and suffering in the world because he wants us to have free will. In other words, God has given us the ability to choose our own actions, even if those actions result in suffering for ourselves or others. This response suggests that God is not responsible for the evi...

However, this response does not fully address the paradox. If God is all-powerful, then he should be able to prevent evil without interfering with our free will. If he is all-good, then he would want to prevent evil and suffering in the world. Therefore, the paradox remains unanswered.

I believe that the Epicurean Paradox is a compelling argument against the existence of an all-powerful, all-good God. It forces us to confront the problem of evil and suffering in the world and question our beliefs about the nature of God. While there may be responses to this paradox, they do not fully address the issu...
April 1998

William Lane Craig vs. Peter Atkins
Carter Presidential Center, Atlanta, Georgia, United States - April 1998

Introduction

Dr. JimÂ Tumlin, Introduction:Â Good evening. My name is Dr. Jim Tumlin, and I am the President of the Faith and Science Lecture Forum. On behalf of the Faith and Science Lecture Forum, we would like to welcome you to tonightâs debate.
For many of us, the first time that we understood the awesome expanse of the universe, the indescribable power of the sun, or the breath-taking complexity and beauty of a single cell, we were driven by a deep desire to know and to be known by the Creator of all this splendor. As the Apostle Paul put it, For since the f...
For many others however, the universe and all it contains, while amazing, is the product of mere chance, a random collection of molecules that ultimately does not point toward the hand of a Creator, and in fact has no meaning at all. As the famous Harvard paleontologist George Simpson put it, âMan is the product of a...
Tonight weâre going to address that question, a question that for most of us is most likely the most important question you will ever ask: Does God exist? And to do that in a thoughtful and rigorous manner, the Faith and Science Lecture Forum has invited Mr. William F. Buckley to moderate tonightâs debate. Mr. Buck...
WilliamÂ F. Buckley, Moderator: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Iâm happy to be a witness to the forthcoming exchange. Iâm not renowned as a moderator and wonder at the confidence of Dr. Tumlin in nominating me to moderate this titanic struggle. I will of course attempt to be scrupulously fair. I do this for pro...
Whether the preponderance of evidence argues the existence of God, Professor William Lane Craig believing as he does that it does prevail.
Dr. Craig returned from a ministry in Belgium, resides in Atlanta, and continues to work in his various campuses. He received his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Birmingham, and a second doctorate in theology from the University of Munich. He has published an astonishing 89 papers in peer-reviewed journa...
On the side of the devil is Peter Atkins. Dr. Atkinsâ doctorate is in physical chemistry from Lincoln College at Oxford. He also is a prodigious writer having published 36 peer-reviewed articles, many of them designed to undermine a belief in a divine Creator. He is an eloquent and learned advocate. Dr. Atkins has al...
The format calls for initial statements by the two contenders, of eighteen minutes each. They will be followed by nine-minute rebuttals. Iâm not going to pull a lever and cause the speakers to disappear into the bowels of the earth if they go five seconds over their allotted period, but if they do go a half minute ov...

WilliamÂ F. Buckley, Moderator: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Iâm happy to be a witness to the forthcoming exchange. Iâm not renowned as a moderator and wonder at the confidence of Dr. Tumlin in nominating me to moderate this titanic struggle. I will of course attempt to be scrupulously fair. I do this for pro...
Whether the preponderance of evidence argues the existence of God, Professor William Lane Craig believing as he does that it does prevail.
Dr. Craig returned from a ministry in Belgium, resides in Atlanta, and continues to work in his various campuses. He received his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Birmingham, and a second doctorate in theology from the University of Munich. He has published an astonishing 89 papers in peer-reviewed journa...
On the side of the devil is Peter Atkins. Dr. Atkinsâ doctorate is in physical chemistry from Lincoln College at Oxford. He also is a prodigious writer having published 36 peer-reviewed articles, many of them designed to undermine a belief in a divine Creator. He is an eloquent and learned advocate. Dr. Atkins has al...
The format calls for initial statements by the two contenders, of eighteen minutes each. They will be followed by nine-minute rebuttals. Iâm not going to pull a lever and cause the speakers to disappear into the bowels of the earth if they go five seconds over their allotted period, but if they do go a half minute ov...

First Statement - Dr. Craig

Dr. Craig:Â Good evening. I want to begin by thanking the Faith and Science Lecture Forum for inviting me to participate in tonightâs debate, and Iâm delighted that you have come out on a stormy evening to think about this most important of questions with us tonight.
Now in tonightâs debate, we have been asked to address two basic questions:
1. What is the evidence for the existence of God?
2. What is the evidence against the existence of God?
Now, with respect to that second question, I will leave it up to Dr. Atkins to present the evidence against Godâs existence. But notice that atheists have tried for centuries to disprove the existence of God, but no one has ever been able to come up with a successful argument. So, rather than attack straw men, Iâll...
So, letâs turn to that first question. What good evidence is there to think that God does exist? I believe that there are many reasons for the existence of God, but due to the limits of time, Iâm going to restrict myself to sketching briefly five reasons why I think God exists. Now in all of our reasoning, we have ...
1. The origin of the universe. Have you ever asked yourself where the universe came from? Why everything exists instead of just nothing? Typically, atheists have said that the universe is just eternal and uncaused. But the astrophysical evidence indicates that the universe began to exist in a great explosion called the...
Now, this tends to be very awkward for the atheist. For as Anthony Kenny of Oxford University urges, a proponent of the Big Bang theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe that the universe came from nothing and by nothing. But surely that doesnât make sense. Out of nothing, nothing comes. So where did the un...
1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
Now from the very nature of the case, as the cause of space and time, this cause must be an uncaused, changeless, timeless, and immaterial being of unimaginable power, which created the universe. It must be timeless, and therefore changeless, because it created time. Because it also created space, it must transcend spa...
Moreover, I would argue, it must also be personal. For a changeless, impersonal cause can never exist without its effect. If the changeless, impersonal conditions for an effect are timelessly present, then their effect must be timelessly present as well. For example, the cause of waterâs freezing is the temperature b...
In his book, The Creation, Dr. Atkins struggles mightily to explain how the universe could come into existence uncaused out of nothing. But in the end he finds himself trapped in self-contradiction. He states, âNow we go back in time, beyond the moment of creation, to when there was no time, and to where there was no...
Itâs no wonder that in his review of Dr. Atkinsâ book, in the Times Literary Supplement, the philosopher John Leslie asks incredulously, âHow could such nonsense have been churned out by the author of a superb textbook like Physical Chemistry?âÂ [8]Â In fact, Dr. Atkinsâ Oxford University colleague Keith Ward...
2. The complex order in the universe. During the last 30 years or so, scientists have discovered that the existence of intelligent life depends upon a delicate and complex balance of initial conditions simply given in the Big Bang itself.Â [10]Â We now know that life-prohibiting universes are vastly more probable than ...
The former agnostic physicist Paul Davies comments, âThrough my scientific work, I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a brute fact.âÂ [11]Â Similarly, Fred Hoyle remarks, âA common sense interpre...
We can summarize our reasoning as follows:
1. The fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe is due to either natural law, chance or design.
2. It is not due to either law or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.
3. Objective moral values in the world. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist. Many theists and atheists alike agree on this point. Michael Ruse, a noted agnostic philosopher of science, explains, âThe position of the modern evolutionist . . . is that morality is just an aid to survival and ...
But weâve got to be very careful here. The question here is not, âMust we believe in God in order to live moral lives?â Iâm not claiming that we must. Nor is the question, âCan we recognize objective moral values without believing in God?â I think that we certainly can! Rather, the question is, âIf God do...
On the atheistic view then, some action, say rape, may not be socially advantageous and so in the course of human development has become taboo.Â [16]Â But that does absolutely nothing to prove that rape is really wrong. On the atheistic view, thereâs nothing really wrong with your raping someone, thus without God the...
But the problem is that objective values do exist, and deep down we all know it. Thereâs no more reason to deny the objective reality of moral values than the objective reality of the physical world. Actions like rape, cruelty, and child abuse arenât just socially unacceptable behavior. Theyâre moral abominations...
1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.
2. Objective values do exist.
3. Therefore God exists.
4. The historical facts concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The historical person Jesus of Nazareth was a remarkable individual. New Testament critics have reached something of a consensus that the historical Jesus came on the scene with an unprecedented sense of divine authority - the authority to s...
Now, Dr. Atkins says, âI know of no evidence that the resurrection did take place.â But there are actually three established facts recognized by the majority of New Testament historians today which I believe are best explained by the resurrection of Jesus.
Fact number one: On the Sunday following his crucifixion, Jesusâ tomb was discovered empty by a group of his women followers. According to Jacob Kremer, an Austrian scholar who has specialized in the study of the resurrection, by far most scholars hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements about the em...
Fact number two: On separate occasions, different individuals and groups saw appearances of Jesus alive after his death. According to the prominent New Testament critic of Vanderbilt University, Gerd LÃ¼demann, it may be taken as historically certain that the disciples had experiences after Jesusâ death in which Jesu...
Fact number three: The original disciples suddenly came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus despite having every predisposition to the contrary. Luke Johnson, a New Testament scholar at Emery University says, âSome sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest C...
N. T. Wright, an eminent British scholar concludes, âThat is why, as an historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him.âÂ [18]Â There is no plausible naturalistic explanation of these three facts. Therefore, it seems to me the Christian is amply ...
5. The immediate experience of God. This isnât really an argument for Godâs existence; rather, itâs the claim that you can know that God exists wholly apart from arguments simply by immediately experiencing him. This was the way people in the Bible knew God. As Professor John Hick explains, âTo them, God was no...
In conclusion then, weâve yet to see any evidence to show that God does not exist, and we have seen five reasons to think that God does exist. Together, these reasons constitute a powerful cumulative case for the existence of God. If Dr. Atkins wants us to believe atheism instead, then he must first tear down all fiv...

Dr. Craig:

First Statement - Dr. Atkins

Dr. Atkins:Â Thank you. Itâs a great pleasure to be here, and itâs always a great pleasure to come to this country. I come from a college in the University of Oxford that was founded 570 years ago, when the Lollard heresy was proving a threat to both church and state, and the College was founded, and I quote from t...
Now this journey will be strenuous, and take your minds to the highest altitudes of current thought. Therefore, I have to ask you that you divest yourselves of unnecessary baggage. Your souls will have to fly with me to the heights of human understanding. They must not be weighed down with the ballast of preconception,...
Now our joint journey begins with a premise of great antiquity and indeed beautiful simplicity. That if a simple explanation of an event or a phenomenon is fully adequate, then a more elaborate one is not warranted. The challenge in this debate therefore is for me to show that everything in and of the world of the body...
Now I have to stress that whereas the assertion of God as an explanation of anything has an air of sublime simplicity, that simplicity is an illusion. An omniscient, omnipotent being that can create a universe, some say maintain that universe, that can intrude into the universe to achieve miracles and resurrections, is...
Iâve set myself a challenge to show that everything in and of the world, of the body, and of the spirit can be understood without needing to invoke a god. Thereâs no point in being an atheist, and certainly a scientist, without being rigorously intellectually honest. So I have to set myself an honest target, which ...
However, what I can hope to do is to present you with a scientific view of the world. A view that makes a convincing case that science can elucidate the great questions that have for centuries been regarded as religionâs own. And with your newly cleansed, de-prejudiced minds, you should be able to accept that science...
Iâll deal with the most difficult problem first. Creation ex nihilo. The adipose argument is that âGod did it.â That of course is the lazy manâs elixir. Sort of a cocktail made up of a swig of credulity and a teaspoon full of unwillingness to think. In short, itâs an explanation that avoids explanation. Scien...
Science proceeds by exposing the true simplicity that underlies perceived complexity. Scientists are hewers of simplicity from complexity. I believe that it is possible for science to formulate an account, and it will be a mathematical account, full of precision, full of logical authority, full of the testability that ...
Let me present one tiny technical argument this evening. How much electric charge is there in the universe? The answer is ânone.â We know experimentally that there is an equal amount of positive and negative charge, which if summed together, gives zero charge overall. At the creation, no charge separated into oppos...
Secondly, and more potently, how much material is there in the universe? Another way to answer this question is to ask how much energy there is in the universe, for Einstein showed that mass and energy are equivalent. When the sum is done - and that involves adding together all the masses of all the protons, all the pe...
Now what that argument shows is that the event that took place at the creation is very much simpler than one might think. God, if he had to do anything, did not have to make anything. All he had to do, if he had anything to do at all, was to separate nothing into equal and opposite components. Now that doesnât solve ...
I could also sketch in an argument that suggests how the reorganization of nothing could take place a-causally. There is of course no causality before the arena of space-time has been established. So it would be absurd to project backwards our familiarity with causality in our current arena and use it as an argument fo...
What I want to leave you with is the realization that the universe is an engagingly reorganized form of nothing, and that speculative a-causal events are capable of seeing it come into being without intervention. No god was needed to make the universe or even to make it happen. My argument diminishes the role of a crea...
Another potent argument produced by adipose brains in favor of a mental labor-saving god is the apparent fine-tuning of the structure of the universe as it tumbled into existence. People intent upon proving the hand of a designer bandy about amazing figures. 10 to the this, 10 to the that. Weâve had tens followed by ...
However, I do have to admit that it gives the impression of being well designed. Had I a lazy brain I would lie back and leave it at that and accept that design implied designer and hence a god in one of his disguises. But not having a lazy brain, I look for a simpler explanation. Several spring to mind.
One possibility is that by chance the universe tumbled into being with this particular mix of fundamental constants. Thereâs no way of calculating the probability of that, but it would, I concede, be exceedingly remote.Â [25]Â Nevertheless, if something can happen, it could happen. Someone wins the lottery.
A second possibility is that a universe can come into existence only with a particular mix of fundamental constants. Other universes, some with Ï = 42, others with bright pink electrons weighing a ton, might bubble into incipient existence but collapse again through want of stability or in some way being logically sel...
A third possibility is that there are trillions and trillions of universes with trillions more popping up into existence as I speak. Now I must emphasize that I most definitely do not have in mind the profligate many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which I find personally distasteful. I mean real, actual un...
Now there will be some who say that a trillion universes is more demanding than a single universe with its one creator. Thatâs logical nonsense. An unstructured, unmade, totally chaotic emergence of random universes without a god is a far, far less complex happening than a single, awesomely well-defined universe with...

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