Rowe, William L. “THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND SOME VARIETIES OF ATHEISM.” University of Illinois Press on Behalf of the North American Philosophical Publications, Oct. 1979.
Throughout the article the author explains the argument for atheism based on the existence of evil. He considers this a strong argument for atheism. The author lays down the principles of the argument and explains that intense suffering exists which could be prevented by an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being. This being would prevent the occurrence of any intense suffering. Since it does not, there does not exist an an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good being. The author also provides us with arguments from the theist’s perspective. He ends off his article by writing about “friendly atheism” which is a concept that an atheist believes that some theists are rational in their justification of a God.

I do not deny what the author says in his argument for disbelief in a creator only because he has limited the attributes of a Creator to omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good. The author states “By a”theist” in the narrow sense I mean someone who believes in the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, supremely good being that created the world”. If he characterizes God as such, then i do not deny his reasoning, but i believe there are some additional characteristic to God which is that he is All Wise. If we accept this characteristic then we know that there is divine wisdom behind why God ordains some suffering.
The author has made a good point in his argument when he gave an example of a dead tree in a forest being struck by lightning, resulting in a forest fire. In the fire a fawn is trapped, burned and lies in terrible pain for many days after which death relieves it of its suffering. The question I have is why would God do such a thing to its harmless creation? What is the outcome of putting an animal through such suffering? What I don’t understand after reading this article is when the author presented the argument of theists he presented it in a complicated manner which makes it difficult to understand the theist point of view and the atheist rebuttal. I need to look up other arguments by theists against the problem of evil in order to better understand this article, also atheist rebuttals will be a bonus. I would commend the author of this article because he has tried to be fair in reasoning and providing views from both sides. Although it would be better if he explained the theists position much clearly. This document tells me that the problem of evil is one of the main arguments for denying a creator, as the author felt that this is a strong argument for atheism. The author has presented his article in a manner that is easy to grasp and has provided examples for his arguments, although I recommend that he should have provided some details for the theists’ point of view. He also supports “friendly atheism” which is the concept of believing that theist can rationally justify their position, which allows the audience to feel that the author is not anti-religion and crafts his arguments in a gentle manner. This author is a credible author as he was a professor of philosophy at Purdue University and he has written many books on philosophy.
One of the quotes of the author that I agree and disagree with at the same time is when he decribes how intense suffering could lead to a greater good. In Page 335 he states, “Of course, if the intense suffering leads to some greater good, a good we could not have obtained without undergoing the suffering in question, we might conclude that the suffering is justified, but it remains an evil nevertheless.”