Theodicy

Theodicy deals with the eternal question of why bad things happen to good people and, more specifically, why a good, just, all-knowing, and all-powerful God could allow evil to exist. Philip K. Dick's novel Valis debates the question from many angles, because the narrator and/or his alter ego, Horselover Fat, is obsessed with and knowledgeable about world religions and philosophies.

The question focuses on why God allows Kevin's cat to dart into traffic and be run over. Kevin, skeptical as to whether there is a God, after using accepted technical language reverts to everyday speech: God is evil, dumb, and weak. Kevin keeps the flattened, stiffened pet and intends to wave it at God at the Last Judgment and demand an answer as to why God lets it happen. When friends suggest that Kevin might have kept the cat on a leash, Kevin demands that they must...