Richard Swinburne

Tennant (Philosophical Theology, 1928–30) and Richard Swinburne (using Thomas Bayes’s probability theorem in The Existence of God, 1979), taking account not only of the order and functioning of nature but also of the “fit” between human intelligence and the universe, whereby humans can understand its workings, as well as human…

…developed by the English philosopher Richard Swinburne, is that natural evils can be the means of learning and maturing. Natural evils, in other words, can help cultivate virtues such as courage and generosity by forcing humans to confront danger, hardship, and need. Such arguments are commonly supplemented by appeals to…

…this understanding, the English theologian Richard Swinburne has argued that the regularities of natural events (which can harm human beings as well as benefit them) are a necessary condition of both an individual’s moral growth and his intellectual development. Thus although fires and floods are dangerous and destructive, they offer…