Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This is a formal debate between myself and Cameron Bertuzzi on whether horrendous suffering disproves God. This is my Opening Statement.

Citations:

1. Elie Wiesel (2006), Night, Hill and Wang, p. 64-65
2. J.L. Schellenberg (2019), Progressive Atheism: How Moral Evolution Changes the God Debate, Bloomsbury Academic, p. 14 (Kindle)
3. J.L. Schellenberg (2007), The Wisdom To Doubt: A Justification Of Religious Skepticism, Cornell University Press, p. 243-244
4. Ibid, p. 244
5. Ibid
6. Ibid, p. 253-254
7. Ibid, p. 249
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Ben Watkins, Personal Correspondence
12. Schellenberg (2007), p. 253-254

As a side note, there are other ways to cash these ideas out in more probabilistic terms. I did not do that here, so what I present stands or falls on its own merits. However, if you are curious to see this stuff defended slightly differently, See "The Holocaust is Strong Evidence Against Theism" by Jeff Lowder:
naturalisticatheism.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-holocaust-is-strong-evidence.html