Final answer:
Alvin Plantinga's views on God's omnibenevolence address the Problem of Evil by suggesting that the existence of free will may account for the presence of evil and suffering in the world. His Free Will Defense implies that God may permit evil due to the value placed on free will, even though such an allowance appears contradictory to God's omnibenevolent nature.
Step-by-step explanation:
Alvin Plantinga's views on God's omnibenevolence relate to the Problem of Evil and suffering in the world. Plantinga, a contemporary philosopher, offers a response to the longstanding philosophical challenge: how can an all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God permit evil and suffering?
While not explicitly stated in the question, Plantinga's Free Will Defense argues that God could have created a world that was populated with free beings who never chose evil. However, according to Plantinga, perhaps every possible world that contains free creatures also contains some evil.
Thus, the existence of evil does not necessarily contradict the existence of an omnibenevolent God, because God values free will enough to permit evil as a consequence.
Other philosophical perspectives offered by theodicies like those of Irenaeus and St. Augustine suggest that suffering can lead to soul-making or that evil is a privation of good, rather than a direct creation by God.
The evidential problem of evil, including arguments presented by philosophers such as William Rowe and David Hume, challenge the compatibility of the existence of a supremely good God with the existence of evil and suffering.
Rowe's argument surrounds the unnecessary suffering that an omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God wouldn't allow if such a being existed.
The logical problem of evil raises similar issues, questioning how God's attributes align with the reality of suffering. However, each theodicy including Plantinga's work, attempts to explain or reconcile this apparent contradiction, providing a variety of perspectives on how the existence of God can be compatible with the existence of evil and suffering in the world.