The Argument from Evil analyzes propositions that lead to the conclusion that God cannot exist concurrently with evil. The argument evaluates the issue that if evil exists in the world, then God must not be both omnibenevolent and omnipotent. Although, the Argument from Evil vividly underscores the conspicuous evil in the world, it fails to prove that God cannot exist entirely due to evil’s presence. Mackie’s Argument from Evil is persuasive mainly because it is easy to believe that evil exists in
The Problem of Evil, first raised by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, is the atheological argument based on the existence of evil. The Free Will Defense attempts to justify that an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God can coexist with evil. The Free Will Defense does not answer either the inductive problem of evil or J. L. Mackie’s deductive problem of evil, as there are problems with the Free Will Defense. Moreover, I believe that it is vital to define what good and evil are in the discussion
to the editor is related to Mackie’s Evil and Omnipotence. The author is agreeing with Mackie’s point of view. He is saying that God cannot possibly exist because evil exists. His argument is very persuasive even though he gives very little evidence to prove that God does not exist other than the fact that there is evil in the universe. He basically says that God does not exist since evil exists and he thinks that everyone has to agree with him. Although his argument is persuasive some people could
Inwagen’s reading, “The Problems of Evil, the Problem of Air, and the Problem of Silence,” defines evil as undeserved pain and suffering to the world’s creatures. God is defined as the being that is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and morally perfect. The problem of evil states if there were an omniscient, omnipotent, and morally perfect God, there would not be such great amounts of evil in the world; however, since there is an immense amount of evil, there is no God. There are four
rid of evil in this world yet. We will give the following three features to this god. He must be omnipotent; a being who possess unlimited power and control. He must be omniscient; a being who knows about everything in this world. And he must be perfectly benevolent; a being that is kind and does not wish any bad intention to anyone. A big reason that makes philosophers question the existence of God is the evident existence of evil. Mackie discusses the deductive problem of evil in “Evil and Omnipotence”
The problem of evil is the most influential argument against rather God exist to man or not. This argument has formed many responses, arguments, and opinions. The free will defense is one of the first responses to the problem of evil. The free will defense is a response that provides various reasons to why God exists or does not exist. It attempts to show man that some good will not happen without evil being acceptable. Many people would argue that the world’s evil is caused mainly by most of the
Why Does Evil Exist J.L. Mackie examines the Problem of Evil, while John Hick and other philosophers propose adequate solutions to the dilemma. Throughout time philosophers have developed many theodicy to explain the “Problem of Evil” Most of which however center around the core ideas of Augustine and Ireanean theodicy which apply the ideas of “soul-making”, and “Free-Will”. This term paper will review the reasoning behind the existence of evil and God simultaneously, and apply some of the solutions
to explain and or prove why God does not exist. He used majority if not all of his article presenting the idea of atheism being a viewpoint that should be adopted by all. McCloskey put on trial that arguments of design, Cosmological and Teleological arguments as being questionable and invalid arguments. McCloskey claims that the “mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in such a being” (McCloskey 63). This concept can very well be defended as God being a necessary force behind