10 April 2025
7.00 pm
Friends’ Meeting House
Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS
Get directions
From £3 (non-members)
Wheelchair accessible
Overview
One of the biggest challenges to Christian faith is a seemingly simple question: If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good, why does evil exist? This Lit & Phil Philosophy Forum explores this fundamental question and examines how Christian thinkers have tried to answer it.
We will examine three key aspects of this problem:
The Logical Challenge: Can evil and the Christian God exist at the same time, or does this create an impossible contradiction? We’ll explore four main responses from Christian thinkers:
- Divine Justice: The idea that suffering exists as a necessary consequence of human sin, starting with humanity’s first wrong choices
- Freedom of Choice: The argument that God values human free will so highly that He allows for the possibility of evil choices
- Character Development: The view that facing difficulties helps develop human virtues like courage and compassion, preparing us for a better afterlife
- Ultimate Purpose: The belief that, despite appearances, everything serves a greater good in God’s plan
The Amount of Suffering: Even if we accept that evil and God can coexist, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is the amount of pain we see really necessary? We’ll examine whether the above arguments adequately address this question.
Animal Suffering: How do we explain the suffering of animals, who aren’t moral agents making free choices? We’ll look at how Christian thinkers have tried to make sense of this particularly challenging aspect of the problem.
This seminar will encourage attendees to think critically about these deep questions while examining both historical and contemporary perspectives on the problem of evil.
The session will be presented by Andrew Bailey, and there is a focus paper written by Andrew that we recommend reading in advance to enable you to get the most out of the discussion.
Good to know: We take pride in putting the fun back into serious philosophy through our friendly and respectful discussions involving different levels of experience of philosophy. The Lit & Phil Philosophy Forum is all about collectively exploring interesting and exciting ideas from different viewpoints … not winning arguments!
The focus paper for reading in advance of the session, can be downloaded here.
We are usually oversubscribed, so if you book but find out later that you cannot attend, please cancel your ticket to free up a place for someone else. Thank you.
Andrew Bailey
Andrew Bailey was born and raised in north Manchester and spent 30 years as a police officer serving mostly in the city centre. During this time – and as an antidote to work – he took a number of Open University courses in Classical History, Art History and Philosophy, eventually gaining a BA in Humanities and an MA in the History of Art.
On retirement from the police, Andrew and his wife, Deborah, moved into the city centre, and he took up a part-time job as a museum assistant. He joined the Manchester Lit & Phil in 2021 and began to attend the Philosophy Forums (Fora?!) in 2022.
Andrew is a long-time season ticket holder at Manchester United and is also an avid reader. He and Deborah like to travel and to visit the theatre and cinema.
