Pat is joined by Dr. Brian Cutter to discuss his recent work on the Omission Theodicy and, in the second half, his response to the proportionality objection to Hell.

00:00 – Intro: Dr. Brian Cutter Returns
01:23 – What Is the Omission Theodicy?
02:02 – Can Natural Evil Be Moral Evil in Disguise?
05:42 – The Demonic Omission Theory
09:27 – Demons, Natural Laws & Scientific Explanations
13:41 – Tolkien, Melkor & Angelic Influence on Creation
17:37 – Does the Theory Make God the Cause of Natural Evil?
22:09 – Is the Omission Theodicy Ad Hoc?
25:06 – Angels, the Great Chain of Being & Delegated Responsibility
28:00 – Does Rational Agency Necessarily Require Free Will?
32:36 – What Would a Properly Guided Evolution Look Like?
38:46 – Are Predation and Animal Suffering Necessary?
41:25 – Objections to the Omission Theodicy
43:12 – Is Angelic Freedom Worth Millions of Years of Animal Suffering?
48:29 – Angels as Co-Creators With God
49:35 – Why Omission May Beat Other Theodicies

52:18 – Brian Cutter’s Work on Hell
53:22 – The Proportionality Objection to Everlasting Hell
56:48 – Can Everlasting Suffering Still Be Finite?
58:12 – “Anti-Theosis”: Could the Damned Gradually Diminish?
1:00:55 – Does Infinite Suffering Mean Infinite Punishment?
1:01:53 – Maritain: Could the Damned Have Natural Happiness?
1:03:26 – The Repugnant Conclusion and Hell
1:06:02 – The “Infinite Lizard Life” Thought Experiment
1:09:04 – Why Everlasting Punishment Need Not Be Infinitely Severe
1:11:32 – Does This Solve the Other Problems With Hell?
1:23:30 – Hell vs. Annihilationism

1:26:43 – What Is Brian Working on Next?
1:27:10 – God and Argument: A New Bayesian Case for Theism
1:28:07 – Bayesian Natural Theology vs. Thomistic Metaphysics
1:30:14 – Are Aquinas’s Arguments Too Metaphysically Demanding?
1:33:16 – The “Gap Problem” in Arguments for God
1:36:56 – Are There Actually Good Arguments for God?
1:40:01 – Where to Follow Brian Cutter