Is there a defensible argument for the non-existence of God?
I shall argue that an evidential argument from evil is a defensible argument for the non-existence of God: this argument does not purport to show that the existence of God is logically impossible, merely that it is unlikely; that it is irrational to believe in the existence of God.
I shall first consider the incompatibility argument from evil but shall conclude that the argument to logical contradiction from the existence of God and evil is too strong a thesis to be defensible. I shall then turn to an evidential argument from evil that is intuitively more plausible than the incompatibility argument and appears prima facie to give good grounds for rejecting God's existence. I shall consider the two most powerful theodicies: the appeal to free will and the appeal to soul-making. I shall argue that neither adequately reconciles evil in the world with God's existence. Furthermore, I shall argue that both rely on assumptions concerning free will and omnipotence that are not merely false but are in fact incoherent.