God would then be unjust, because too many people who have done nothing wrong would be punished.

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Parent debateThis argument is used in the debate Does God exist?.
Keywords: God, Evil, Suffering[ edit ].

SummarySummary

QuotationsQuotes

“Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is all the suffering that has gone on for millennia, for which mankind is in no way responsible. There are all the children who die of disease, often in atrocious suffering. The millions of women who have died in childbirth (and sometimes still do), their flesh and souls torn apart. There are the mothers of these children, there are the mothers, when they are still alive, of these women, unable to help them, to relieve them, only able to watch helplessly as the horror unfolds... Who would dare speak to them of original sin? There are the innumerable cancers (not all of which are due to the environment or lifestyle). There's the plague, leprosy, malaria, cholera, Alzheimer's disease, autism, schizophrenia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Charcot's disease, Huntington's chorea... There are earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions... There's the misfortune of the righteous and the suffering of children. Original sin offers only a derisory or obscene explanation. We must be born guilty," writes Pascal, "or God would be unjust. There's another, simpler possibility: that God doesn't exist.”

André Comte-Sponville, The spirit of atheism, Albin Michel, 2006.

ReferencesReferences

Arguments forJustifications

Arguments againstObjections

  • Argument againstReincarnation is the only explanation for unjust and inexplicable suffering.

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