Pdf on apr 1, 2009, william hasker published james a. And if they are, should we conclude that such a god does not, in all likelihood, exist. The traditional arguments for the existence of god have been fairly thoroughly criticised by philosophers. If god is omnipotent, then god has the power to eliminate all evil. To answer this, we can begin by thinking about the claims that god is omnipotent and. In their book, teilhards seven stages of suffering. Another way to solve the problem of god and evil is to see omnipotence as so. In book viii, chapter vii, of the confessions, augustine describes.
God and the challenge of evil a critical examination of some. God prevents evil for the betterment of any particular world. The plan of this book is constructed around the objections to the good and all. Omnipotent is made up of the root word potent meaning power and omnimeaning all.
Mackie begins the article by saying that he thinks that all the arguments for god s god is omnipotent. In classical terms, god is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, as well as immutable. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false. The problem of evil stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. A wholly good being is opposed to evil in such a way that it eliminates evil as far as it can. Many atheists believe that the correct answer to both of these questions is yes. There are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do. The plural in the title of james kellers book refers to the fact that, in his view. Many atheists believe that the correct answer to both of these questions is. Mackie, 1955 the resulting logical contradiction theoretically disproves the existence of. In a widely discussed piece entitled evil and omnipotence john mackie repeats this claim. Thus one who is omnipotent is allpowerful or having unlimited power. In book viii, chapter vii, of the confessions, augustine describes himself as.
God is able to do as he pleases because he has the power to do so. Are the evils in the world strong evidence against the existence of an allpowerful and allgood god. Mackie formulates the logical problem of evil as follows. In the oxford english dictionary, omnipotence is defined as allpowerfulness, or almightiness. The philosophical problem of evil is the challenge of reconciling belief in god with evil in the world. God has all power in heaven and on earth matthew 28. The omniscient god knew that, however much evil might result from. If god is omniscient, then god knows when evil exists. Q 1 if an omnipotent god could bring it about that au human beings. If evil exists or is about to come into existence, then an omniscient being knows that it exists or is about to come into existence. In other words, when god wants something to be done, it is done. It has long been a desire of mine to write this book on god and suffering. W hether an y of these view s is true is, of course, another question. If something is wholly good, it always eliminates as much evil as it can.
From these it follows that a good omnipotent thing eliminates evil 3 david hume. Any opinions or claims contained in this working paper do not necessarily reflect the views of hse. Since god exists necessarily, if gods perfect goodness entails that he will prevent kenneth l. Even the book of proverbs, despite its occasional flashes of cynicism. The omnipotence of god is the application of his sovereignty.
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. Humanities wp brp 09hum2012 this working paper is an output of a research project implemented at the national research university higher school of economics hse. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true, the third would be false. The belief in the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent. Many have agreed with pope th at disorder is harm ony n o t understood, an d th at partial evil is universal good.