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A Forum for Theology in the World- Vol 11 No 1 2024
This book is about all the suffering and death produced by natural processes like tsunamis, genetic disorders, extreme weather events, even before climate change, and the whole evolutionary process leading to all living things on the planet. (The book is not about the violence men and women wilfully do to each other and to the planet.) Many people find all this suffering and death due to natural processes hard to reconcile with the belief that these natural processes are created by a God who is all powerful, all knowing and wholly good. They expect such a God to create a different kind of universe without such suffering and death. The actual universe contradicts the universe expected. This is good enough reason for many people to decide to give up believing in God who is the creator of these natural processes. The book is an invitation for people to revisit that decision. The book comes from the author co-designing and co-lecturing with his atheist colleagues in History and Philosophy of Science at The University of Melbourne, a second-year subject, ‘God and the Natural Sciences’. This took place over twenty years. Students with a wide variety of beliefs, enrolled in the subject from across the university. The book has five chapters. The first clarifies the problem in the problem of natural evil to ensure we are not talking past each other. The second, third and fourth gives my answer to the problem of natural evil. I argue from this idea of God to the kind of universe we should expect God to create. The universe so expected is found not to contradict the actual universe. The fifth chapter is ‘Reality Checks’, eight ways of testing the account of the kind of universe we should expect God to create. The book has an appendix where I discuss some of the alternative ideas of God that are in circulation and address several other criticisms of the idea of God used in this book besides the problem of natural evil.
Stephen Ames is an Honorary Fellow in History and Philosophy of Science at The University of Melbourne, having a PhD in physics and a PhD in philosophy of science, both from the university. From 2001- 2020, he co-designed and co-lectured with his atheist colleagues to students from across the university, a second-year subject, ‘God and the Natural Sciences’. He is a priest in the Anglican Church, at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, and a fellow of ISCAST- Christianity & Science in Conversation.
