About this topic
The problem of evil, animal suffering, divine hiddenness, moral narrative, and whether suffering undermines theistic claims.
Debates are grouped by their main question. Scores assess the reasoning presented, not the truth of a position. Read the assessment method.
Explore the assessments
Randal Rauser vs Alex Malpass — Does Suffering Provide Evidence Against Theism? · 2021
Malpass argues suffering favors indifference over classical theism; Rauser concedes the bare comparison while defending richer theistic background beliefs.
Alex Malpass: 87 · Randal Rauser: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Zac Sechler vs Scott Clifton: Is Christian belief in a loving God plausible despite divine hiddenness and the prospect of hell? · 2022
Clifton’s hiddenness and hell challenge prevailed 83–72, especially against Sechler’s uncertainty-based freedom defense, inclusivist salvation, and preference for annihilation.
Zac Sechler: 72 · Scott Clifton: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Michael Jones vs Alex O'Connor: Would a loving God allow the evil and suffering found in our world? · 2020
O'Connor more effectively presses evidential justification and selective prevention, while Jones offers qualified defenses through freedom, virtue, and eventual recovery from suffering.
Michael Jones: 74 · Alex O'Connor: 85. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Alex O'Connor vs Max Baker-Hytch: Could God Be Evil? · 2021
O'Connor narrowly leads through character-focused objections and reciprocal creation motives, while Baker-Hytch excels at scope distinctions and qualifies the final mixed-world comparison.
Alex O'Connor: 84 · Max Baker-Hytch: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Divine Hiddenness and Evidential Ambiguity: Julian Baggini vs. Max Baker-Hytch · 2025
Baker-Hytch narrowly prevailed by probabilistically integrating hiddenness with relational and cumulative evidence, while Baggini pressed cultural contingency, geographic luck, and experiential mediation.
Julian Baggini: 80 · Max Baker-Hytch: 82. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Divine Hiddenness and Religious Evidence: Joe Schmid vs. Dan Paterson · 2026
Schmid won by arguing that nonculpable nonbelief, demographic clustering, and silence amid tragedy fit naturalism better, while Paterson's temporary-redemption defenses remained comparatively under-supported.
Joe Schmid: 88 · Dan Paterson: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Divine Hiddenness and a Loving God: Alex O'Connor vs. Lukas Ruegger · 2022
Alex O'Connor prevailed by separating public arguments from personally accessible revelation and pressing nonresistant seeking and delayed disclosure, while Lukas Ruegger countered with cumulative evidence, fallible introspection, individualized pathways, and delay's possible goods.
Alex O'Connor: 85 · Lukas Ruegger: 75. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Divine Hiddenness and Christian Love: Tyler Vela vs. Michael Jones · 2023
Tyler Vela’s hiddenness critique wins by pressing loving availability, avoidable world design, and less-hidden alternatives more consistently than Michael Jones establishes sanctification, soul formation, and individualized disclosure.
Tyler Vela: 83 · Michael Jones: 78. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs Stephen Law: Does God Exist? · 2011
Craig’s cumulative creator, morality, and resurrection case met Law’s stronger suffering evidence and evil-God symmetry challenge, which remained insufficiently distinguished by providential skepticism.
William Lane Craig: 76 · Stephen Law: 88. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Gregory Pine vs Alex O'Connor: The Divine Hiddenness Problem · 2024
O'Connor presses sincere nonbelief, unequal access, culpability, and inherited deprivation; Pine answers through universal grace, temporal formation, providence, and recoverable gratuitous gifts.
Gregory Pine: 74 · Alex O'Connor: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Eric Hernandez vs Justin Schieber: Does God Exist? · 2023
Hernandez defended theistic grounds for morality, reason, and consciousness; Schieber pressed stronger naturalistic alternatives and evidential challenges from suffering, hostility, and hiddenness.
Eric Hernandez: 74 · Justin Schieber: 85. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Cameron Bertuzzi vs Justin Schieber: The Problem of Evil · 2019
Schieber's comparative suffering case prevailed overall, while Bertuzzi's likelihood objection and limited-information defense exposed a serious weakness in the final skeptical-theism reply.
Cameron Bertuzzi: 78 · Justin Schieber: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Trent Horn and Cameron Bertuzzi vs Alex O'Connor and Joe Schmid: Problem of Evil · 2022
Horn and Bertuzzi defend theodicy and Christian hope; O'Connor and Schmid press evidential evil, animal suffering, and the cost of skeptical replies.
Trent Horn and Cameron Bertuzzi: 78 · Alex O'Connor and Joe Schmid: 84. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Sharon Dirckx vs Stephen Woodford: Why Doesn't God Stop Suffering? · 2024
Dirckx defended broken creation, objective dignity, divine solidarity, and restoration; Woodford pressed evidential challenges about permitted suffering, selective healing, and salvation.
Sharon Dirckx: 79 · Stephen Woodford: 80. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Stephen Woodford vs Simon Edwards: Is It Rational to Believe in God? · 2023
Woodford presses suffering, revelation, and evidential gaps; Edwards answers through a cumulative theistic case grounded in reason, order, morality, and purpose.
Stephen Woodford: 82 · Simon Edwards: 78. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
William Lane Craig vs A. C. Grayling: Is Belief in God Reasonable in Light of Evil? · 2011
Craig defends theistic reasonableness through freedom, epistemic restraint, and total evidence; Grayling presses suffering, better-world feasibility, ordinary moral knowledge, and secular morality.
William Lane Craig: 84 · A. C. Grayling: 86. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Josh Rasmussen vs Alex Malpass: Suffering, Theism, and Causal Finitism · 2021
Rasmussen defends causal finitude and theistic expectations; Malpass challenges modal recombination and argues that suffering's severity and distribution favor indifference.
Josh Rasmussen: 82 · Alex Malpass: 89. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Glen Scrivener vs Joe Folley: Morality, Evil, Consciousness, and Christian Narrative · 2025
Folley pressed cumulative evidential and methodological objections, while Scrivener offered an integrated Christian narrative whose strongest replies remained partly underdeveloped.
Glen Scrivener: 74 · Joe Folley: 84. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Dinesh D'Souza vs Bart Ehrman: God, Suffering, and Evil · 2025
D'Souza defended theistic compatibility through epistemic limits, freedom, and natural order; Ehrman pressed suffering's scale, preventability, and unexplained intervention gap.
Dinesh D'Souza: 79 · Bart Ehrman: 87. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Alex O'Connor vs William Lane Craig: Does God Exist? · 2026
Craig presented a cumulative Christian case, while O'Connor's calibrated challenges concerning fine-tuning, animal suffering, and Christian specificity proved especially effective.
William Lane Craig: 76 · Alex O'Connor: 82. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.