In his article “Evil and Omnipotence” Mackie asserts, “In its simplest form the problem is this: God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false.” (p.119) There are logical inconsistencies including the fact that there should be no evil yet it exists. In this paper, I plan on arguing for Mackie's argument in the beginning of his article where it is stated as followed:
God is omniscient
God is omnipotent
God is omnibenevolent
Yet Evil exists What comes next is how I will explain why Mackie believes the premises, with supporting points from the paragraph located on p.124 where Mackie starts …show more content…
If this is true, why does he let so many bad things happen? Why is there pain and suffering in the world? Why would he let evil people like Adolf Hilter, or Osama Bin Laden exist? So this leads to the question of how is it possible for God to be all good and yet still allow people to be so evil. Mackie believes that God has created men with free will so that they “sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they would always freely choose the good?” This choice often comes from the character. In terms of other people, when talk about controlling choices, every single time it is referred to a choice being made out of line with someone's character. It is not so clear with the wrongdoing that is involved. It seems to be the case that when a person is created who would always freely choose the good, they would have a perfect character, and be a great good, would they be set up against the evil in society? Mackie points out that God has a perfect character and will always choose the greater good, But how come he cannot create another being just like …show more content…
If god was to create something so perfect, wouldn't it make that individual basically “Godlike”? Therefore, God cannot create another being like himself that are as good, or even as powerful as himself. God cannot make another perfect being, meaning that he would create something that was extremely good, but not perfect. Therefore, the completely perfect person, cannot exist outside of God himself. Therefore, God is limited in what he is able to create and that god is incapable of creating apart from himself a morally perfect person. An example of this is the Adam and Eve Story. They were created to be Good, but they were as close to 100% good as you could come but they were not completely perfect. That little bit that was not perfect is what allowed them to separate themselves from God and become
God is omniscient
God is omnipotent
God is omnibenevolent
Yet Evil exists What comes next is how I will explain why Mackie believes the premises, with supporting points from the paragraph located on p.124 where Mackie starts …show more content…
If this is true, why does he let so many bad things happen? Why is there pain and suffering in the world? Why would he let evil people like Adolf Hilter, or Osama Bin Laden exist? So this leads to the question of how is it possible for God to be all good and yet still allow people to be so evil. Mackie believes that God has created men with free will so that they “sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they would always freely choose the good?” This choice often comes from the character. In terms of other people, when talk about controlling choices, every single time it is referred to a choice being made out of line with someone's character. It is not so clear with the wrongdoing that is involved. It seems to be the case that when a person is created who would always freely choose the good, they would have a perfect character, and be a great good, would they be set up against the evil in society? Mackie points out that God has a perfect character and will always choose the greater good, But how come he cannot create another being just like …show more content…
If god was to create something so perfect, wouldn't it make that individual basically “Godlike”? Therefore, God cannot create another being like himself that are as good, or even as powerful as himself. God cannot make another perfect being, meaning that he would create something that was extremely good, but not perfect. Therefore, the completely perfect person, cannot exist outside of God himself. Therefore, God is limited in what he is able to create and that god is incapable of creating apart from himself a morally perfect person. An example of this is the Adam and Eve Story. They were created to be Good, but they were as close to 100% good as you could come but they were not completely perfect. That little bit that was not perfect is what allowed them to separate themselves from God and become