Aron Ra on The problem of evil

Aron Ra approaches the problem of evil through biology and natural history rather than abstract philosophy. His emphasis on the natural world — parasites, predation, disease, extinction — grounds the argument in observable reality. Hundreds of millions of years of animal suffering preceded human existence. No free will defence applies to the ichneumon wasp laying eggs in a living caterpillar, or to a child born with a genetic disorder that guarantees a short life of agony.

Ra is particularly effective at cataloguing the biological evidence against benevolent design. He points to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, vestigial organs, junk DNA, and the myriad ways in which organisms are cobbled together by natural selection rather than intelligently designed. These are not the marks of an all-knowing creator — they are exactly what evolution by natural selection would produce: good enough to survive, indifferent to suffering.

Against theodicies, Ra argues that every attempt to explain why an omnipotent, benevolent God would permit suffering amounts to special pleading. The free will defence does not explain natural disasters. The soul-making defence does not explain the suffering of animals and infants. The 'mysterious ways' response is, in his view, an admission that the problem has no solution.