ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that if an evil is such that its prevention by an omnipotent, omniscient being would undermine morality, then if morality is a good to be preserved, God may permit that evil in order to achieve the good of sustaining morality. Stephen Wykstra suggests that God may have had a choice about E1 and E2. On the one hand, he could have produced a world in which the goods for the sake of which he permits these evils—and others like them—are within our ken. On the other hand, he could have produced a world in which the goods for the sake of which he permits these evils are beyond our ken. In order for humans to develop in the desirable ways, God must either massively deceive us about what is going on in nature or he must permit natural evils that serve no balancing or outweighing good at all.
