Hope in the Face of Evil (November 11, 2024)

The Wedding Dance, Peter Bruegel the Elder (1566)

Looking at the world today, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. The environment is declining. Wars are breaking out around the world. In the face of so many evils, what reason is there for hope?

In this lecture, philosopher Brian Ballard argues that the very evils that might lead us to doubt there is a God should also lead us to hope there is a God. As long as God might exist, we can hope that all is set right in the end.

This lecture, the First Annual PRÉCIS Lecture in Philosophy and Religion, will take place on Monday, November 11, from 4:30-5:50pm in McCosh 28.

All members of the Princeton University community, especially undergraduates, are warmly invited.

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Prof. Brian Ballard is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University Irvine. His research focuses on the epistemic value and representational content of emotional experience, the grounding of human rights, whether the existence of God would or would not make our lives better, and the moral status of AI. His book God, World & Value: On the Axiology of Theism and the Rationality of Faith is forthcoming from Routledge Press. Prof. Ballard earned an M.A. at NYU and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

PRÉCIS, which stands for “Philosophy, Religion, and Existential Commitments in Society,” is an initiative of the Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion (3PR), in collaboration with the Philosophy Department. The initiative is primarily focused on undergraduates and aims to foster philosophical and theological reflection on how we should live. The popular course “PHI 211: Philosophy, Religion, and Existential Commitments” is sponsored by PRÉCIS.