William L. Rowe
Seemingly pointless suffering makes it likely that there is no God.
Life
William L. Rowe (1931-2015), born in Detroit, taught philosophy at Purdue University. A specialist in philosophy of religion, he is best known for his 'evidential' version of the argument from evil: seemingly pointless suffering makes it likely that no all-powerful, perfectly good God exists. He also studied cosmological arguments.
Main works
Paper presenting the example of the burned fawn and the argument from pointless evil.
An introductory textbook of philosophy of religion.
A detailed study of versions of the cosmological argument.
In his own words
« There exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse. »
« Suppose in some distant forest lightning strikes a dead tree, resulting in a forest fire. In the fire a fawn is trapped, horribly burned, and lies in terrible agony for several days before death relieves its suffering. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceSeemingly pointless suffering makes it probable that no all-good, all-powerful God exists; he calls this 'friendly atheism'.
Rowe, The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism (1979)
He argues from evidence (an inductive, Bayesian case) that theism is more likely false than true, while granting that some theists are rationally justified.
Rowe, The Evidential Argument from Evil: A Second Look (1996)