Volume 6, Issue 2, Fall-Winter 2003
Laurence Carlin
Pages 280-298
Can Any Divine Punishment be Morally Justified?
A traditional and widespread belief among theists is that God administers punishment for sins and/or immoral actions. In this paper, I
argue that there is good reason to believe that the infliction of any suffering on humans by God (i.e., a perfectly just being) is morally unjustified. This is important not only because it conflicts with a deeply entrenched religious belief, but also because, as I show, a number of recent argumentative strategies employed by theistic philosophers require that divine punishment be morally justifiable. I conclude, then, that the arguments put forth by these theistic philosophers do not succeed.