The most incisive indictment against Christianity resides in the notion of a God who created a world in which there is untold suffering and death. Is this the best God could do? In response, most Christians will mutter something about free will or the necessity of evil to bring about God's plan for humanity. Theologians often reply by challenging the very legitimacy of the question; God only requires that we persevere. Biblical scholars, who might otherwise be expected to offer a scriptural perspective, nervously denounce any suggestion that the presence of evil may have had something to do with a primordial couple and a fruit tree.