EBOOK Providence and the Problem of Evil

Richard Swinburne offers an answer to one of the most difficult problems of        religious belief: why does a loving God allow humans to suffer so much? Swinburne        argues that God wants much more for us than pleasure or freedom from suffering: he        wants us to learn and to love, to make the choices which make great differences for        good or evil to each other, to form our characters in the way we choose; above all,        to be of great use to each other. If we are to have all this, there willinevitably        be suffering for the short period of our lives on Earth. Because of the good that        God gives to humans in this life, and makes possible, through our choice,        thereafter, he does not wrong us in allowing suffering. Providence and the Problem        of Evil is the final instalment of Swinburne'sacclaimed four-volume philosophical        examination of Christian doctrine.