On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

by William Lane Craig

These four Christian doctrines increase the probability of the coexistence of God and the suffering in the world. They in turn decrease any improbability that suffering might seem to cast upon the existence of God. The atheist may respond at this point that we have no reason to think that these four Christian doctrines are true. Whoa! He’s trying to shift the burden of proof again! It’s the atheist who claims that suffering makes God’s existence improbable. It’s entirely legitimate for you to say, “Not the Christian God!” The atheist needs to show that the Christian God is improbable relative to the suffering in the world. So he needs to show either that these doctrines are probably false or else show that God’s existence is improbable even given the truth of these doctrines. He has the burden of proof in either case.