Dan Barker on The problem of evil
Barker sees the problem of evil as logically decisive against the Christian God and finds all theodicies morally repugnant.
As a former evangelical preacher, Barker once devoted himself to defending God's goodness. His rejection of theodicy was, by his own account, one of the final steps in his deconversion. He now argues that the problem of evil is not merely a philosophical difficulty for theism but a moral indictment.
Barker's approach is personal and concrete. He asks believers to imagine a human parent who had the power to prevent their child's suffering but chose not to. Such a parent would be considered monstrous. Yet God, who supposedly has infinite power and infinite love, permits the suffering of millions of children. The theodicies offered — free will, soul-making, mysterious purposes — would not be accepted as excuses from a human parent, and they should not be accepted from God.
He is particularly scathing about the doctrine of hell, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the problem: a God who creates beings knowing they will suffer eternally is not merely failing to prevent evil — he is the author of the worst evil imaginable.
“If God exists, he is the most prolific aborter in history, the most neglectful parent, and the most indifferent bystander to suffering the world has ever known.”