the issue and then to turn to the book of Ecclesiastes and some related NT passages in order to provide a different framework within which to critically consider the matter of ‘pure evil’. This is the view that everything is to be understood in terms of material cause and effect. The whole of existence is a result of impersonal, blind chance—with a capital C. This is the working assumption of most TV programmes. Here the presupposition is that there is no great mind behind the universe