EPISODE · Jun 19, 2026 · 3H 41M
The Problem of Evil: Why God Allows Suffering
from sleepyphilosophyradio · host slphilosophy
An innocent man, a burned fawn, and the hardest question ever asked of God.This episode follows the problem of evil from its oldest telling to its newest defenses. It begins with a man who loses everything in a single afternoon and refuses every easy explanation, then traces the great answers, evil as absence, the best of all possible worlds, and the earthquake and the novel that broke optimism's public standing.From there the argument sharpens into the twentieth century, a charge of outright contradiction, the celebrated defense that answered it, a theodicy of growing souls, and a dying fawn that changed the question from proof to evidence.The second half belongs to skeptical theism, the claim that human minds cannot survey the reasons a God might have, and to the objections that press it, moral paralysis, spreading doubt, horrendous evils, animal pain, and divine silence. The episode ends where the argument now stands, between a rock and a rope. Serious philosophy, told slowly and clearly, for listeners who want real ideas as they drift off.Please listen only in safe, restful contexts.SUPPORT THE SHOWVote on what comes next: https://www.sleepyphilosophyradio.com/voteBecoming a member keeps these episodes coming and unlocks the members only library of exclusive book summary episodes, a growing shelf of great books read closely and explained in plain language.Subscribe: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sleepyphilo/subscribe (0:00:00) The Man on the Ash Heap (0:13:21) The Riddle (0:19:35) Evil as Absence (0:29:38) The Best of All Possible Worlds (0:41:30) The Morning Lisbon Fell (0:47:30) The Posthumous Bombshell (0:59:38) Returning the Ticket (1:09:32) After Auschwitz (1:15:50) Three Propositions (1:24:38) The Free Will Defense (1:38:34) The Vale of Soul-Making (1:48:13) The Fawn in the Forest (2:00:13) The Hypothesis of Indifference (2:06:36) The Parent and the Child (2:19:14) The Limits of Sight (2:28:21) The Moral Cost (2:39:46) The Skeptical Spiral (2:46:17) Horrendous Evils (2:57:45) Wandering in Darkness (3:06:50) Against Theodicy (3:13:13) Nature Red in Tooth and Claw (3:22:02) The Hidden God (3:28:57) The Rock and the RopeSleepy Philosophy Radio makes longform, carefully researched philosophy written as a serious essay and paced for rest.All research and writing is done personally. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.Q7WnROfxZKmRe4Uk2xv7
What this episode covers
An innocent man, a burned fawn, and the hardest question ever asked of God.This episode follows the problem of evil from its oldest telling to its newest defenses. It begins with a man who loses everything in a single afternoon and refuses every easy explanation, then traces the great answers, evil as absence, the best of all possible worlds, and the earthquake and the novel that broke optimism's public standing.From there the argument sharpens into the twentieth century, a charge of outright contradiction, the celebrated defense that answered it, a theodicy of growing souls, and a dying fawn that changed the question from proof to evidence.The second half belongs to skeptical theism, the claim that human minds cannot survey the reasons a God might have, and to the objections that press it, moral paralysis, spreading doubt, horrendous evils, animal pain, and divine silence. The episode ends where the argument now stands, between a rock and a rope. Serious philosophy, told slowly and clearly, for listeners who want real ideas as they drift off.Please listen only in safe, restful contexts.SUPPORT THE SHOWVote on what comes next: https://www.sleepyphilosophyradio.com/voteBecoming a member keeps these episodes coming and unlocks the members only library of exclusive book summary episodes, a growing shelf of great books read closely and explained in plain language.Subscribe: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sleepyphilo/subscribe (0:00:00) The Man on the Ash Heap (0:13:21) The Riddle (0:19:35) Evil as Absence (0:29:38) The Best of All Possible Worlds (0:41:30) The Morning Lisbon Fell (0:47:30) The Posthumous Bombshell (0:59:38) Returning the Ticket (1:09:32) After Auschwitz (1:15:50) Three Propositions (1:24:38) The Free Will Defense (1:38:34) The Vale of Soul-Making (1:48:13) The Fawn in the Forest (2:00:13) The Hypothesis of Indifference (2:06:36) The Parent and the Child (2:19:14) The Limits of Sight (2:28:21) The Moral Cost (2:39:46) The Skeptical Spiral (2:46:17) Horrendous Evils (2:57:45) Wandering in Darkness (3:06:50) Against Theodicy (3:13:13) Nature Red in Tooth and Claw (3:22:02) The Hidden God (3:28:57) The Rock and the RopeSleepy Philosophy Radio makes longform, carefully researched philosophy written as a serious essay and paced for rest.All research and writing is done personally. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.Q7WnROfxZKmRe4Uk2xv7
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The Problem of Evil: Why God Allows Suffering
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