cannot be placed on Gods shoulders but the “free will” of humans is not free, rather just a random outcome. But what if God gives us free will, meaning that we can make decisions for ourselves and although he can intervene, holding true the claim of omnipotence, he chooses not to? This is a valid alternative for God giving us free will and remaining omnipotent but contradicts Gods definition of being omnibenevolent. As a whole, humans sin and make evil decisions each and everyday, that is a…
of God’s omnipotence. Mackie believes that, “…unqualified omnipotence cannot be ascribed to any being that continues through time.” In other words, omnipotence is not coherent and it is not possible for any being in our world to have it. In this essay, I will begin with a summarization of Mackie’s reasoning for this belief and then cite my reasoning for believing that his argument, in and of itself, is not a good reason for disbelief in God. Despite the incoherency of God’s omnipotence, the…
This paper states one of many answers to the presence of evil and questioning God’s omnipotence presented by Mackie in his article “Evil and Omnipotence”. Mackie has his own “Inconsistent TRIAD” formula that states: 1. God is omnipotent 2. God is omnibenevolent 3. Evil exists. He argues that these premises are inconsistent since all three of them cannot exist at the same time. The premise below states that the free choice of good or evil by men is dependent on God. And if men can choose good on…
As I mentioned in previous part, there are people who use logic to deny the omnipotence of God, even some people deny the inner sense that God exists. This is also records in the Bible Psalm 14:1. And this deep sense of deny is one of the consequence of sin. Sin will cause people to deny their knowledge of God. Human beings are created…
The first conclusion relies on Milton’s presentation of free-will and its relationship with omnipotence. Although Milton does emphasize the notion of free will, meaning that Satan did choose to directly disobey God’s wants, God’s omnipotence ultimately does not allow for the complete separation and individualized power that Satan seems to think he possesses. God, within his commentary on Satan’s fall, directly calls…
that men were created in the image of God, that, too, would mean that God is in the image of us. To my knowledge, it is the mind that controls the body. Therefore, I presume it must be God’s omniscience, a quality of the mind, that controls his omnipotence, a quality of the body. Both Mackie’s logical problem of evil and his further dismissal of the freewill hypothesis incorrectly focus on God in terms of his power, not of the knowledge that controls it. I will not make the same mistake. So, I…
Many scholars argue that one has to either drop omnipotence and stick to benevolence, or give up benevolence and hold on to omnipotence (Surin, 1982). In other words, you cannot have both at the same time. Suppose, for example; God was both all-good and all-powerful; then, it would be impossible for evil to exist. The fact that evil is present…
different ideas in his essay, Evil and Omnipotence, in how evil and good coincide with each other.…
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…
A theist would counter this argument by saying “there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do.” This problem arises because with people believing in Mackie’s argument that omnipotence can be limited, it reduces their desire and will to worship God. All of Christianity is motivated to believe and worship by scripture that summarizes “through God anything is possible.” If Christians were led to believe that through even someone…