The Absence of God and The Presence of Evil: A Conversation with Megan Fritts

This is Episode Nine of Season Three, featuring Dr. Megan Fritts. Megan Fritts joined the UA Little Rock philosophy faculty in the School of Human Inquiry in 2022. She received her Ph.D. in 2020 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work intersects with several subdisciplines, including technology ethics, medical ethics, action theory, 19th century philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Her current projects focus on ways in which emerging technologies threaten to undermine essential conditions for human flourishing.

Dr. Fritts teaches several courses at UA Little Rock, including Ethics and Society, Technology Ethics, Philosophy of Science, and 19th Century Philosophy. She is also the co-host of Philosophy on the Fringes, a podcast that applies rigorous philosophical thinking to unexpected topics.

In this podcast, we discuss the problem of evil, or theodicy. I was led to invite Megan onto the podcast after reading her recent article in Religious Studies called Creation as divine absence: A metaphysical reframing of the problem of evil,  an open access article to which I have linked here. This is an ancient and perennial problem in theology and philosophy, dating back to the ancient Greeks and ancient Christianity.

The problem is simply stated: why would, in the Christian understanding, an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God – omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent – allow evil and suffering to flourish in the world? Megan Fritts looks to Simone Weil, the French Catholic philosopher to help us understand the presence of evil and the absence of God.

There is, however, no easy solution to the problem of theodicy for anyone. It is difficult to make sense of profound evil and suffering regardless of one’s theism or atheism or non-theism.

In this vein, I also want to offer a link to Yujin Nagasawa’s new book The Problem of Evil for Atheists, which is also available as open access online. Although framed as the problem the problem of evil for atheists, Nagasawa also considers the problem of evil for traditional theists, pantheists and axiarchists, as well as atheists and non-theists in both the east and west.

Finally, Megan recommended Simone Weil's works Waiting for God and Gravity and Grace. 

And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes:

Coming up next is Dr. Ruben Rosario on Calvin for the World, his new book, Dr. Gerald Schlabach, Dr. Don Baker, and Dr. Tim Pawl.

Three episodes of Pop Culture Matters are out. I hope you enjoyed the conversation Martin and I had on Christmas films.  What’s up next for Pop Culture Matters? We are considering the wonderful and recently ended HBO series Somebody Somewhere, a show which perhaps surprisingly has church as an integral part of its world.

Let us know what you want to discuss next on Pop Culture Matters. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce, newly revived, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. Or email us with your suggestions to [e-mail] or [e-mail].

Some upcoming e