something less than an unanswerable demonstration of the truth of atheism. I attempt just
such a critical examination in this chapter. In this chapter, we shall examine this
argument, hold it up to critical scrutiny.
2. The “Moral Insensitivity” Charge
Before we examine the argument from evil, however, we must consider the charge that to
examine it, to treat it as if it was, as it were, just another philosophical argument whose
virtues and defects could be weighed by impartial reason, is a sign of moral
insensitivity—or downright wickedness. One might suppose that no argument was
exempt from critical examination. But it is frequently asserted, and with considerable
vehemence, that it is extremely wicked to examine the argument from evil with a critical
eye. Here, for example, is a famous passage from John Stuart Mill's Three Essays on
Religion:
We now pass to the moral attributes of the DeityThis question bears a very different
aspect to us from what it bears to those teachers of Natural Theology who are
encumbered with the necessity of admitting the omnipotence of the Creator. We have not
to attempt the impossible problem of reconciling infinite benevolence and justice with
infinite power in the Creator of a world such as this. The attempt to do so not only
involves absolute contradiction in an intellectual point of view but exhibits to excess the
revolting spectacle of a jesuitical defense of moral enormities. (1875, 183)
I cannot resist quoting, in connection with this passage from Mill, a poem that occurs in
Kingsley Amis's (1966) novel The Anti-death League (it is the work of
end p.189
one of the characters).^1 This poem puts a little flesh on the bones of Mill's abstract
Victorian prose. It contains several specific allusions to just those arguments Mill
describes as jesuitical defenses of moral enormities. Its literary effect depends essentially
on putting these arguments, or allusions to them, into the mouth of God.
To a Baby Born without Limbs
This is just to show you who's boss around here.
It'll keep you on your toes, so to speak.
Make you put your best foot forward, so to speak,
And give you something to turn your hand to, so to speak.
You can face up to it like a man,
Or snivel and blubber like a baby.
That's up to you. Nothing to do with Me.
If you take it in the right spirit,
You can have a bloody marvelous life,
With the great rewards courage brings,
And the beauty of accepting your lot.