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title: "Alex O'Connor on The problem of evil"
description: "O'Connor presses the evidential problem of evil with philosophical rigour, particularly focusing on animal suffering."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/alex-oconnor/on/problem-of-evil
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# Alex O'Connor on The problem of evil

> O'Connor presses the evidential problem of evil with philosophical rigour, particularly focusing on animal suffering.

Position

# Alex O'Connor on _The problem of evil_

Argues againstPhilosopher and YouTuber

O'Connor presses the evidential problem of evil with philosophical rigour, particularly focusing on animal suffering.

Alex O'Connor has made the problem of evil a centrepiece of his philosophical work, bringing both analytical rigour and genuine emotional weight to the argument. In his debates with William Lane Craig and other theists, he has pressed the evidential version of the problem with unusual persistence and clarity.

O'Connor's distinctive emphasis is on animal suffering — not as a rhetorical flourish, but as a philosophical wedge. He points out that hundreds of millions of years of animal agony preceded human existence. No free will defence applies. No soul-making theodicy is available. The suffering was simply built into the fabric of biological life, long before any human could have sinned or learned from it.

In his Oxford debate with Craig, O'Connor pressed this point to devastating effect: if God is omnipotent and created the process of evolution by natural selection, then God deliberately chose a mechanism that requires the suffering and death of billions of sentient creatures over hundreds of millions of years. This is not a side effect — it is the method. And a method that produces this much suffering, O'Connor argues, is not the work of an all-loving being.

Key quotes

> “If God chose evolution as his method of creation, he chose a method that requires the suffering and death of billions of sentient creatures over hundreds of millions of years. That is not a side effect. That is the plan.”

> “The question is not whether God could have morally sufficient reasons for permitting suffering. The question is whether, on the evidence, it is reasonable to believe that he does.”

## See it in action

These debate clips explore this argument in real time — stated, challenged, and defended live.

O'Connor vs Craig on animal suffering

6:50

Alex O'Connor discusses the problem of evil.

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[

Alex O'Connor

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/alex-oconnor)[

The problem of evil

The full argument — stated fairly, then answered.

](/arguments/problem-of-evil)

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