Humans come to understand experiences through the basic functions of the mind. The word "experience" refers not only to personal involvement in certain events, but also to anything that can be detected through the senses, ie: people, inanimate objects, and feelings. The ability to define, categorize, extend knowledge onto other things, and compare are the most fundamental functions. Without these functions, we could not gather knowledge from our experiences, nor could we arrive at any conclusions about their significance. The physical world would ultimately be unintelligible. This leads to the question of how we can understand things that are not in the physical world, like God. Our senses cannot directly experience things outside of this world, therefore we are drastically limited in our ability to know and understand God. The best possible solution is for us to combine our belief in God and our earthly experiences to create a better understanding of God and his qualities. Our experiences of evil are key in the understanding and appreciation of God. Although it is commonly claimed that the existence of evil weakens the assertion that God is omnibenevolent, this is contrary to the truth. Through our ability to extend knowledge to arrive at new truths and our ability to compare experiences, our minds can use the existence of evil to further understand and appreciate God and his omnibenevolence.
First, it is important to illustrate how extension and comparison work in day-to-day situations before moving on to how these functions assist us in understanding God. Suppose you have a friend you have known all of your life. We will call him Patrick. Patrick is a generally reliable friend, so you are content with having thi...
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...which have varying amounts of goodness, something must be good beyond all the other things. In such a world, we might know God is good beyond all else, but without evil, the significance of that knowledge is diminished. When there is good and evil, another dimension is added. A tension is added. Even if it is a psychological response, humans are more compelled when there are two opposing sides. We see God as being so good, that he can easily overcome and conquer the most evil of things. Mackie is wrong to claim it is fallacious to believe the universe is better off with evil. Without evil, our minds could not begin to understand how special God truly is.
Works Cited
Mackie, J.L. "Evil and Omnipotence." Philosophy of Religion. 4th ed. Eds. Michael Peterson, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 288-296. Print.
It is perhaps the most difficult intellectual challenge to a Christian how God and evil can both exist. Many of the greatest minds of the Christian church and intellects such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas spent their entire lives trying to solve this problem, and were unsuccessful (Erickson, 2009, p.439). However, this dilemma is not only an intellectual challenge, but it is emotional. Man feels it, lives it. Failing to identify the religious form of the problem of evil will appear insensitive; failure to address the theological form will seem intellectually insulting. This conundrum will never be completely met during our earthly life, but there are many biblical and philosophical resources that help mitigate it.
Rich, Gregory P. "Omnipotence And God's Existence." North Carolina Religious Studies Association, Wake Forest University. 20 November 2002 <http://www.wfu.edu/Organizations/ncrsa/papers/gregrich.pdf>
Carus, Paul. "The Philosophical Problem of Good and Evil." The History of the Devil: With 350
8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
It also follows that God, not as benevolent as could be hoped, prefers the maximization of good (2) as opposed to the minimization of evil (1). This is disquieting for the individual who might be the victim of suffering a “greater good.”
Throughout the world, most people believe in some type of god or gods, and the majority of them understand God as all-good, all-knowing (omniscient), and all-powerful (omnipotent). However, there is a major objection to the latter belief: the “problem of evil” (P.O.E.) argument. According to this theory, God’s existence is unlikely, if not illogical, because a good, omniscient, and omnipotent being would not allow unnecessary suffering, of which there are enormous amounts.
A common objection to the problem of evil is to claim that good and evil are both necessary for each other to exist. They must be looked at as counterparts. Another way of putting it is that without experiencing evil, we couldn’t possibly recognize or know what is good. Evil must exist in order for good to exist in the same way that the concept of up must exist if there we are to conceive of down. Mackie denies that this is true however. He explains that good and evil cannot be logical opposites like up and down (or great and small) because up and down are not qualities. It wouldn’t make sense to favor up over down or vice versa as one could do with good and evil. Also, even if it were true that evil is necessary for us to conceive of good, we would only need a very small amount. And it wouldn’t seem right to say that very little evil exists in the world.
There is evil. 3. So, God does not exist”. Since there is evil, then that means God does not exist. So there is no loving and powerful God. However, if there is a God then he is not all loving and powerful. Daniel Howard-Snyder states in his article “God, Evil, And Suffering,”: “We would have to say God lacks power and knowledge to such an extent that He can 't prevent evil. And there lies the trouble. For how could God have enough power and knowledge to create and sustain the physical universe if He can 't even prevent evil? How could He be the providential governor of the world if He is unable to do what even we frequently do, namely prevent evil?” (5). This statement argues that God is not all powerful because he is unable to prevent evil in the world. Daniel Howard-Snyder then argues that: “Would a perfectly good being always prevent evil as far as he can? Suppose he had a reason to permit evil, a reason that was compatible with his never doing wrong and his being perfect in love, what I 'll call a justifying reason. For example, suppose that if he prevented evil completely, then we would miss out on a greater good, a good whose goodness was so great that it far surpassed the badness of evil. In that case, he might not prevent evil as far as he can, for he would have a justifying reason to permit it” (5). Even if God had a reason to allow evil, he who is all loving and powerful would want the least amount of people to suffer and feel pain. Since God knows
The Problem of Evil is the question that asks if God is perfectly benevolent, all-powerful, and all-knowing, then how can he allow evil to exist? Many philosophers have tried to answer this age-old question, often focusing on the intellect and the will. This essay will explore and compare the ways in which Descartes, Leibniz, and Berkeley each attempt to solve this dilemma.
In the next argument Mackie presents us with, he explains the need to have evil to give the opportunity of heroism, benevolence, and sympathy to exist. For example if good is overcoming evil, then how could someone overcome something that does not exist? How can a superhero be a superhero without a villain? They cannot. Mackie then distinguishes between first and second order good and evil.
Davis, Stephen T., and John B. Cobb. "Free Will and Evil." Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Atlanta: J. Knox, 1981. 74-89. Print.
The Power of God, Readings on Omnipotence and Evil, Edited by Linwood Urban and Douglas N. Walton, New York, Oxford University Press, 1978
The problem of evil in the Old Testament has been a widely argued topic for many years. Why is there evil if there is a God? Since there is evil does that mean God is not all-powerful? These are just some of the questions asked. John Leslie Mackie, an Australian philosopher made the argument that God is good, God is all powerful, and evil/suffering exists, however you cannot have all three of those things at the same time.
In order to understand The Problem of Evil, we must first understand the concept of God. The God that this problem addresses is what we call a PKM god. This god is accepted in multiple religions, such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Over half of the world population claims to be followers of any of
1) Oxford Readings in Philosophy. The Concept of God. New York: Oxford University press 1987