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John Hick is an important British philosopher of religion. Here he tries to give a theodicy -- an explanation of why God permits evil. Very basically, God's reasons for permitting evil include:
(1) the value of free will (which results in evil when humans misuse it)
(2) the value of suffering in making our lives more significant (for example, in our heroic loving struggles against suffering)
(3) other reasons that we may not be aware of (the "mystery factor")
This exercise deals with a reading from Hick in our anthology (pages 301-15 of Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (second edition), edited by Peterson, Hasker, Reichenbach, and Basinger). These computerized exercise materials are copyrighted (c) 2002 by Harry J. Gensler; but they may be distributed freely.
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This set has 19 problems.