The world’s oldest objection, examined against the evidence.
Your turn: Does free will answer every kind of suffering? A quiz about hard arguments and careful replies. Take the 10-question quiz → The explained answer key comes by email; the news list is optional.
“If God exists, where does evil come from?” The problem of evil has been debated in several forms. This book examines historical and contemporary arguments, their strongest objections, and the limits of proposed replies.
The living version remains, and it is formidable. This book examines it claim by claim at maximum strength. Mackie, Rowe, Draper, Sterba and Flew are quoted before any response is offered. It then asks the question the dossier had failed to ask: which God are we talking about?
What this book does—and refuses to do
It does not prove God from evil: the failure of a refutation is not a proof. It does not explain any person’s suffering. It does not caricature an opponent. It reaches a finding of insufficient grounds and states what could overturn that finding.
Eighteen questions left open or explicitly conceded are gathered at the end of the volume. The aim is not to conceal the scandal of evil, but to determine exactly what the argument establishes and what it does not establish.
Book Four of The Investigation
This volume follows Who Wrote the Torah?, Who Invented God? and Who Left Egypt?.
- 29 chapters
- 8 appendices
- 342 notes
- A bibliography updated through 2026
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