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The Copernican principle, intelligent extraterrestrials, and arguments from evil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2018

SAMUEL RUHMKORFF Open the ORCID record for SAMUEL RUHMKORFF [Opens in a new window]
SAMUEL RUHMKORFF*
Affiliation:
Division of Social Studies, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The physicist Richard Gott defends the Copernican principle, which claims that when we have no information about our position along a given dimension among a group of observers, we should consider ourselves to be randomly located among those observers in respect to that dimension. First, I apply Copernican reasoning to the distribution of evil in the universe. I then contend that evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life strengthens four important versions of the argument from evil. I remain neutral regarding whether this result is a reductio of these arguments from evil or the statement of a genuine evidential relationship.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 55 , Special Issue 3: Religious Experience and Desire , September 2019 , pp. 297 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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