A perfect god would have weakly actualized one of those worlds instead of the one we occupy. But the theist is not prepared to affirm any of those things. Mackie wrote a very convincing piece on the problem of evil called evil and omnipotence, in which he attempts to show that one of the following premises must be false in order for them to be consistent with each other. Thus the problem of evil is reduced to the theodicity that this is the best of all possible worlds a quiteliterally ridiculous statement, but not a selfcontradicting one. In the omnipotnce of this essay, we will examine some theistic responses to the logical problem of evil that do not require the abandonment of any central tenet of theism. Due to the prevalence and influence of evil, this is a problem that cannot be ignored. And yet evil 2 plainly exists, and indeed most theists in other contexts stress its existence more than that of evil 1. He was also elected a fellow of the british academy. Mackie s argument against the free will defense is twofold. Someone who is morally evil will cause others to suffer through choice, options, and free will. First, i think that plantingas free will defence involves a hitherto undetected inconsistency. The moral problem with the free will defense against the problem of evil. The socalled problem of evil is a puzzle arising from many theists conception of.
Hick argues that moral evil is a result of the mystery of free will. Even then, mackie continues, there arise religious contradictions when rejecting one of the three ideas. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to address the problem of evil from a christian worldview. The problem simply stems from basic beliefs or assumptions pertaining to the attributes of god. Early philosophers also tried to explain the problem of evil and suffering. The traditional arguments for the existence of god have been fairly thoroughly criticised by. Has plantinga buried mackies logical argument from evil. This defense of theism the free will defense has provoked the following response by j. Mackie s objection to the free will defense will g in this essay i am going to discuss one of the more important objections to the free will theodicy, that one that alleges god could create perfect people, and suggest a little known, unorthodox but probably acceptable defense to the problem. Moral evil is the pain and suffering that comes from acts of free will and the. The logical problem of evil makes a claim based on logic. Mackie on the problem of evil university of notre dame. Alvin plantingas freewill defense is a logical argument developed by the american analytic philosopher alvin plantinga and published in its final version in his 1977 book god, freedom, and evil. Mackie agrees that the problem for the theologian can be solved by giving up one of the three principles with which we began.
These solutions claim to show that i doesnt contradict ii, but mackie says they either give up on gods omnipotence or interpret good and evil in a way that leaves the problem unresolved. Does mackie think that this is a promising position for the theologian. The nature of the problem j l mackie evil and omnipotence mackie focussed on the logical problem of evil. For a lucid statement of this argument, see alvin plantinga, god, freedom and evil. Mackies objection to the free will defense blogger. Mackie s version of the logical problem of evil is a failure, as even he came to recognize. The problem of evil is usually seen as the problem of how the existence of god can be reconciled with the existence of evil in the world. In a widely discussed piece entitled evil and omnipotence john mackie repeats.
However, mackie claims that the only solution to the logical problem. Plantingas free will defense has been the most famous theistic response to the logical problem of evil because he did more to clarify the issues surrounding the logical problem than anyone else. Mackie says that a solution to this problem of evil is to either believe that god is not omnipotent, god is not absolutely good, or believe that evil is only an illusion. Pdf many philosophers seem to suppose that the argument of plantinga. Morality is then directly associated with suffering. Mackie discusses some fallacious solutions, numbered 1 to 4 in the text. This essay is the first extract in the edexcel philosophy of religion anthology. A critique of the free will defense, a comprehensive look at alvin. Mackie 2 perhaps the most important proposed solution of the problem of evil is that evil is not to be ascribed to god at all, but to the independent actions of human beings, supposed to have been endowed by god with freedom of the will. Mackie himself seems willing to grant these logical limitations on gods. In this paper, i will try to explain the problem of evil through our free will, and the causes and consequences that are brought by natural evil then i will also attempt to enumerate the root causes of evil. That is, god is allpowerful, allknowing, and allgood. Mackie begins the article by saying that he thinks that all the. Damn that evil the problem of evil is an issue that is entirely too overlooked and dismissed by most christians.
What is plantingas free will defense, and how does it. Mackies essay evil and omnipotence 1955, in which mackie had. Why could god not have made men such that they always freely choose the good. Mackie, in his article, argues against the ideas of human choice and free. Mackie s evil and omnipotence evkl, however, it is not possible that god has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil, then it seems that would be true. For if god can create a being with morally significant freedom, it must be possible for god to create such a being who chooses to freely bring about evil. A person is not obligated to accept any of plantingas views in order to recognize thatlogicallyhis defense succeeds in defeating that particular version of the problem of evil. The logical problem arises because theists maintain that there are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do. Evil is the result of the exercise of human free will, and thus evil is not gods fault.
The easy way out of the problem of evil would be to accept a finite god evil is an illusion this would be another way to address the problem evil is the privation of the good evil is not a stand alone entity, it is just a lack of something reasons mackie considersdebates to resolve the problem of evil. Free will and the problem of evil1 purdue university. Contrary to current mythology, however, its failure was not established by alvin plantingas free will defense. Mackie 3 but insofar as one tries to solve the problem of evil by stressing the importance or value of second order good in counterbalancing the existence of first order evil, one falls prey to what mackie calls a fatal objectionthe existence of second order evil like indifference. And if it is possible for god to create creatures that make morally significant free choices, then it is possible for god and evil. Keywords john mackie alvin plantinga logical argument from evil problem of evil in evil and omnipotence 1955 mackie famously argues that the three beliefs 1 god is infinitely powerful, 2 god is wholly good, and 3 evil exists, are inconsistent, and in so arguing he appeals to the further premises 4 there are no limits to. In fact, it has been the cause of countless articles, lectures, and debates for centuries. Alvin plantingas free will defense is a logical argument developed by the american analytic philosopher alvin plantinga and published in its final version in his 1977 book god, freedom, and evil. If god has made men such that in their free choices they sometimes prefer what is good. Mackie s discussion of evil is one of the first to. According to plantinga, libertarian free will is a morally. The problem of evil stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. I plantingas presentation of the free will defense is a landmark in contemporary discussions of the problem of evil. There are, then, quite a num ber of adequate solutions of th e problem of evil, an d som e of these have been adopted, or almost adopted, by various thinkers.
He believes the occurrence of nonmoral evil in the world is a necessary condition for the ethics of choice and the process of soulmaking. The global problem could be solved while leaving individual lives. He also wrote the miracle of theism 1983 which considers arguments for and against gods existence. Plantingas argument is a defense against the logical problem of evil as formulated by the philosopher j. The good of human free will outweighs all human evil. Analyse the implications of mackies views on the problem.
For example, both would say it is impossible for god to control free will, a major cause of evil and suffering, because to control a free creatu re is logically impossible. Mackie, in an article entitled evil and omnipotence, explained the problem of evil. Fwd states, according to mackie, that evil is due to human free. Mackie, in his famous essay evil and omnipotence, believes he has refuted the free will defense fwd of the problem of evil. According to those theists, god has the following three properties. Evil is suffering and man can be termed evil andor commit acts of suffering on others. Moral evils are the result of freewill, they happen when humans act immorally. John leslie mackie 19171981, an australian philosopher, taught at oxford university from 1967 till his death in 1981. Logical problem of evil internet encyclopedia of philosophy. In 1955, he wrote an important article on the problem of evil entitled. It is better overall for humans to have free will than for them to not. Virtually all monotheistic religions profess that there is a divine being who is.
Mackie and lewis the problem of evil mackie the socalled problem of evil is a puzzle arising from many theists conception of the divine. Mackie the problem of evil is a problem only for those who believe that there is a god who is both omnipotent and wholly good. Mackie asks how can this count as a solution to the problem of evil, given that god created the freewilled creatures. The present solution of the problem of evil, then, can be maintained only in the form that god has made men so free that he cannot control their. As we have shown, pace plantinga, god has the power to do this without denying freedom. The logical problem of evil thus remains because there are possible worlds in which god exists with free beings, moral good and no moral evil. An account of the problem of evil and a consideration of the various objections to the problem. Mackie relies on dva to defend his logical problem of evil when he claims that gods failure to avail himself of making a morally perfect world serves as strong evidence against the proposition that god exists.
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