The People vs. God: The Lucifer Lawsuit RE: the Problem of Pain, Evil and Suffering

The court proceedings follow the structure common to jury trials. After the Judge issues instructions to the jury, the Plaintiff's counsel makes an opening statement. This is followed by an opening statement from the Defendant's counsel.

The Plaintiff's counsel then brings his expert witnesses who present evidence in support of the Plaintiff's Complaint. These experts are then examined by the Plaintiff's counsel and cross-examined by the Defendant's counsel. Next, the Defendant's counsel introduces his expert witnesses who present evidence in support of the Defendant's position. These experts, in turn, are examined by the Defendant's counsel and cross-examined by the Plaintiff's counsel.

Once the expert testimonies are completed, the Plaintiff's counsel makes a Closing Statement following which the Defendant's counsel makes his Closing Statement.

After the Closing Statements, the Judge instructs the jury to enter into deliberation until it reaches a verdict.

The expert witnesses testifying on behalf of the Plaintiff or the Defendant include cosmologists, physicists, biologists, logicians, philosophers, psychologists and theologians. The domains under discussion include modern cosmology, physics and biochemistry, evolutionary biology, genetics, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, comparative religion, theology and history - to the extent that these domains pertain to the Complaint. The expert witnesses were required by the Court to use language intelligible to the lay public with minimal technical jargon.

Given the identity of the Defendant and the nature of the Complaint, the media dubbed the case "the Lucifer Lawsuit" under headlines like "Satan Sues God."