The evil god challenge is an argumentative strategy that has been pursued by a number of philosophers in recent years. It is apt to be understood as a parody argument: a wholly evil, omnipotent, and omniscient God is absurd, as both theists and atheists will agree. But according to the challenge, belief in evil God is about as reasonable as belief in a wholly good, omnipotent, and omniscient God; the two hypotheses are roughly epistemically symmetrical. Given this symmetry thesis belief in an evil god and belief in a good god are taken to be similarly preposterous. In this paper we argue that the challenge can be met, suggesting why the three symmetries that need to hold between evil God and good God – intrinsic, natural theology and theodicy symmetries – can all be broken. As such, we take it that the evil God challenge can be met.

中文翻译：

---

迎接邪神挑战

邪神挑战是近年来许多哲学家所追求的一种论证策略。它很容易被理解为一种模仿论证：一个完全邪恶、无所不能、无所不知的上帝是荒谬的，因为有神论者和无神论者都会同意。但根据挑战，相信邪恶的上帝与相信一个完全善良、无所不能、无所不知的上帝一样合理；这两个假设在认识论上大致是对称的。鉴于这种对称性命题，相信恶神和善神同样被认为是荒谬的。在这篇论文中，我们认为挑战是可以应对的，这说明为什么邪恶的上帝和善良的上帝之间需要保持的三种对称性——内在的、自然的神学和神义的对称性——都可以被打破。因此，我们认为可以应对邪神挑战。