Abstract It is a good thing that humans should have the opportunity to choose freely between good and evil; and so it is also good that there should be natural evil — to give us the knowledge of how to bring about good and evil events ourselves, and to give us the opportunity to react to suffering with courage and sympathy. God has a limited right to bring about evil for a good purpose. In order to give us greater freedom, he has good reason to remain ‘hidden’ for a limited time. The existence of moral and natural evil, and divine ‘hiddeness’ do not therefore provide arguments of much strength against the existence of God.