The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering

Recently, Yujin Nagasawa has argued that “systemic suffering” – suffering inherent in the evolutionary process – poses a problem for existentially optimistic theists and atheists who think that the world is overall good and therefore are happy and thankful to be alive in it. In short, he shows that...

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Autor principal:	Jonbäck Francis
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	De Gruyter 2021
Materias:	systemic suffering yujin nagasawa sceptical theism sceptical atheism existential optimism existential hope Religion (General) BL1-50
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/46168e2f2d59496abad4fcb99d57f954
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:46168e2f2d59496abad4fcb99d57f954
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:46168e2f2d59496abad4fcb99d57f9542021-12-05T14:11:01ZThe Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering2300-657910.1515/opth-2020-0151https://doaj.org/article/46168e2f2d59496abad4fcb99d57f9542021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0151https://doaj.org/toc/2300-6579Recently, Yujin Nagasawa has argued that “systemic suffering” – suffering inherent in the evolutionary process – poses a problem for existentially optimistic theists and atheists who think that the world is overall good and therefore are happy and thankful to be alive in it. In short, he shows that it is difficult to consistently believe that the world is overall good when also recognising the existence of systemic suffering. In this article, I evaluate a sceptical response to the problem. The idea behind the response is a sort of scepticism according to which we do not know whether our knowledge about the realm of values is representative. I argue that the response fails, but that theism in conjunction with such scepticism succeeds. Atheism in conjunction with such scepticism, on the other hand, does not. I also argue that atheists can at least consistently hope that the world is overall good, despite systemic suffering. Finally, I answer objections and conclude.Jonbäck FrancisDe Gruyterarticlesystemic sufferingyujin nagasawasceptical theismsceptical atheismexistential optimismexistential hopeReligion (General)BL1-50ENOpen Theology, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 102-110 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	systemic suffering yujin nagasawa sceptical theism sceptical atheism existential optimism existential hope Religion (General) BL1-50
spellingShingle	systemic suffering yujin nagasawa sceptical theism sceptical atheism existential optimism existential hope Religion (General) BL1-50 Jonbäck Francis The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
description	Recently, Yujin Nagasawa has argued that “systemic suffering” – suffering inherent in the evolutionary process – poses a problem for existentially optimistic theists and atheists who think that the world is overall good and therefore are happy and thankful to be alive in it. In short, he shows that it is difficult to consistently believe that the world is overall good when also recognising the existence of systemic suffering. In this article, I evaluate a sceptical response to the problem. The idea behind the response is a sort of scepticism according to which we do not know whether our knowledge about the realm of values is representative. I argue that the response fails, but that theism in conjunction with such scepticism succeeds. Atheism in conjunction with such scepticism, on the other hand, does not. I also argue that atheists can at least consistently hope that the world is overall good, despite systemic suffering. Finally, I answer objections and conclude.
format	article
author	Jonbäck Francis
author_facet	Jonbäck Francis
author_sort	Jonbäck Francis
title	The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
title_short	The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
title_full	The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
title_fullStr	The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
title_full_unstemmed	The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering
title_sort	sceptical response to the existential problem of systemic suffering
publisher	De Gruyter
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/46168e2f2d59496abad4fcb99d57f954
work_keys_str_mv	AT jonbackfrancis thescepticalresponsetotheexistentialproblemofsystemicsuffering AT jonbackfrancis scepticalresponsetotheexistentialproblemofsystemicsuffering
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The Sceptical Response to the Existential Problem of Systemic Suffering

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