Nathaniel Branden’s Case against Theism Examined:
The Problem of Pain, Evil, and Disasters
by James Kiefer
Unpublished dot-matrix printout dated June 28, 1980 *

 [Editor’s notes are in blue.] 
Introduction

I promised at the beginning of this paper [“Objectivism and Theism”] that, after presenting the positive case for theism on Objectivist grounds, I would examine Dr. [Nathaniel] Branden’s arguments and state where, in my judgement, he goes astray. To this task I now turn.

Section Directory

On Accepting Disaster
God and Evil  
A World with No Negatives Whatever  
God and Unjustified Evils 
Digression on the Amount of Pain in the World  
Particular Negatives and Utopian Speculations  
Anti-Utopians Not Blind Conservatives  
God and Evil: A Summarizing Dialogue  


References
[Editor’s notes are in blue.]

* In the dot-matrix printout, this section begins with the unexplained notation “(p7) 8 May 81.” Since the discussion of disasters and pain occupies quite a large number of pages of the printout, and are listed as “Section 7” in James’s table of contents, it is entirely possible that this section was completed nearly a year later than the rest of the printout.]

† The title refers to Nathaniel Branden’s lecture “The Concept of God,” from his lecture series “The Basic Principles of Objectivism.” That lecture is fully transcribed in his book The Vision of Ayn Rand, chapter 4. Partial and perhaps complete audios seem to be available throughout the Internet. See also R.A. Childs, “The Epistemological Basis of Anarchism,” Note 19.

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Texts throughout this section are copyright 2008 by James E. Kiefer, printed by permission of his estate.
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