Epicurus and the Problem of Evil

One of the many arguments philosophers have proposed to question the existence of God is known as the problem of evil, which has to do with the seeming logical inconsistency between an all-powerful, all benevolent god and the existence of unnecessarily excessive and gratuitous suffering in the world.

One of the earliest formulations of this problem and, in my opinion, the most concise and poetic was articulated by the ancient philosopher Epicurus. Check it out:

Don't let that fool you into thinking that he was a gloomy pessimist. In fact, through an ingenious combination of a materialistic metaphysics and empirical epistemology, Epicurus developed a hedonistic system of ethics designed to promote happiness, all about which you can learn in this nice little documentary.