ABSTRACT
The former is the logical argument from evil; the latter is the empirical argument from evil. This chapter explains the empirical argument is the more serious threat to classical theism. It provides a strong version of the empirical argument, examines two important objections that have been advanced against it, shows whether the argument can survive these objections, and describes the epis-temological status of theism in the light of the argument. Those who believe that the world contains evils that render theism improbable need not hold that just any evil renders theism unlikely. But intense human and animal suffering on a rather large scale—for example, the suffering occasioned by the Lisbon earthquake—may be thought to do so.
