Omnibenevolence

The Problem of Evil argument focuses on the fact the existence of evil in the universe contradicts with God’s existence. I challenge the soundness of the argument, especially two particular premises which deal with omnipotence and omnibenevolence. The argument is largely considered a valid or logical argument. To examine the validity of the argument, it is necessary, first, to define the term “God” in the argument. “God” is defined here as omnipotent and omnibenevolent. This is the definition of God that theists tend to use. The first premise of the Problem of Evil argument is that if God does exist, then God is omnipotent. This premise is just stating the theistic definition of God. The second premise of the argument is that if God is omnipotent,…

Throughout the course of human history perhaps no issue has caused as much debate or controversy as the question of the existence of God. People on both sides have provided a variety of interesting arguments to support their positions. Perhaps no argument is as famous as one by Hume which has come to be known as the problem of evil. The argument goes as follows, “Epicurus’ old questions are yet unanswered. Is he willing to prevent evil, but no able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not…

The Problem of Evil In Evil and Omnipotence J.L Mackie argues that if there is a God who is all-powerful and all good than he would not have allowed there to be any evil in this world, or if there was any evil to begin with he would have eliminated it, but sense there is evil than God must not exist. If you think about how and what Mackie is arguing then it makes sense, that God must not exist if he would let us be tormented by evil on a daily biases, but this argument is only valid to the…

. Another atheist argument is that if God was the first cause, God must himself have been the effect of some cause. If not, then the premise that every effect has a cause is untrue, and God could not have created the universe because he could not have been "the first cause." There is just as much evidence that some other phenomenon created the universe, such as the Big Bang. Another argument for atheism examines the presence of evil on Earth. If God is omnibenevolent, how can he allow such evil…

Underestimating God When something evil is happening it is normal for mankind to go through the five stages of grieving (Axelrod, 2006). Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance are all normal parts of processing a detrimental moment in life. No two individuals will go through the stages in the same time or even the same order yet rest assured that at some point we will all ask: why? As part of our quest to understand our relationship with the rest of mankind and God we…

The Problem of Evil in the World The concept of theodicy emphasizes the fact that the world seems to contain many undesirable realities that would have been stopped by any being that has the ability to do so, hence the “problem of evil” (Ricoeur and Pellauer, 1985). Thus, there is a need for an explanation to reconcile the idea of the problem of evil with the existence of God. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, it is vital to understand how and why that same God allows evil to…

Explain why the existence of evil is a problem for a believer (25 marks) Evil can be defined simply as the opposite of what is good, the immoral and intentional harm to human beings. This is a problem which effectively challenges the existence of God because it contradicts God’s qualities as a loving creator. John Hick defined evil as “physical pain, mental distress, and moral wickedness. The consequences of evil is always suffering”. Evil can be distinguished into two categories, moral evil…

He establishes that God’s limitless power should allow him to create beings who freely choose to do the good thing on every occasion, rather than beings who “sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil” (p. 124). Mackie proceeds to raises an important question: “can an omnipotent being make things which he cannot subsequently control?” (p. 125). In the second premise, Mackie addresses God’s omnibenevolence. According to Mackie, if God was all loving or infinitely good, he would have…

A secondary benefit is that it is logically possible for God to make humans that have freedom and always choose between degrees of goodness in every occasion. On the one hand, if we accept (i), freedom is meaningless because evil is logically inconsistent with God’s omnipotence and omnibenevolence. On the other hand, if we accept (ii), freedom is meaningless because randomness is logically inconsistent with our valuing of things as supremely good. This is Mackie’s paradox of omnipotence—both (i)…

The text centers around the “problem of evil” and attempts to address the problem by explaining “specific evils and the amount of evil” (311). Several theories centered around this problem are described, such as the privation theory of evil, the therapy theory of evil, and the free-will defense. In the text it is explicitly stated that theists, and believers in God will not deny God’s omnipotence or omnibenevolence (311). Still, some solutions to the problem include the claims that God’s power…