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Richard Swinburne (1998) notes that many theists and atheists, due to Plantinga’s (free will defence) work, have accepted the logical problem of evil has been eliminated, and yet the evidential problem remains. Gratuitous evil.
He explains that whether or not the logical problem has been eliminated depends on how it is defined, and this ends up being a debate between certain theists and atheists on what hypothetical state of affairs would mean that God does not logically exist.
Michael Peterson (1982) reasons that Plantinga’s free will defense is sound in regard to the logical problem of evil and can be used to show that God must allow gratuitous evil or deny human free will. Peterson thinks Plantinga’s defense does not succumb to gratuitous evil.
Philosopher Doug Erlandson (1991) writes that theist and anti-theist have been debating the problem of evil for centuries, and the basic differing philosophical assumptions made by the two groups means that the debate shall continue.
Within my PhD work and online I have taken a compatibilist theistic position contrary to that of Plantinga's incomaptibilism, although in agreement with Plantinga on holding to traditional, Biblical Christian theism.
I reason a Reformed theistic, compatibilism reasonably deals with the logical problem of evil and gratuitous evil and the evidential problem of evil; and is more reasonable than incompatibilism.
ERLANDSON, DOUG (1991) ‘A New Perspective on the Problem of Evil’, in Doug Erlandson PhD Philosophy, Reformed.org, Orange County, Covenant Community Church of Orange County.
PETERSON, MICHAEL (1982) Evil and the Christian God, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
PETERSON, MICHAEL (1998) God and Evil, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press.
PETERSON, MICHAEL, WILLIAM HASKER, BRUCE REICHENBACH, AND DAVID BASINGER (1996)(eds.), ‘Introduction: Saint Augustine: Evil is Privation of Good’, in Philosophy of Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (1982) The Nature of Necessity, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN C. (2000) Warranted Christian Belief, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
SWINBURNE, RICHARD (1998) Providence and the Problem of Evil, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
