Kiera Sanders
Words: 581
Mackie believes that the problem of evil is a logical problem. He goes on to
explain that God is wholly good, but that evil still exists. The following statement is a
contradiction, because if God is wholly good than evil can’t exist. He also states that the
essential theological doctrine has beliefs that are not consistent with other beliefs. Mackie
says that the term “all powerful” is to have complete control and power over everything
and anything in existence and that “wholly good” is to not have any evil, and just have
pure goodness. This is never the case with anything in life. Balance is what has been
found time and time again, even with ones free will.
Now, the free will response to the problem of evil is that man has free will from a
wholly good God. Man is given the free will to decide what to do, or not to do with
random events. Man can make a wrong choice and do evil things, but it is solely mans
fault, because he decides his actions using his own free will. God is said to be the creator
of man and that God granted man free will, yet the randomness of out decisions with free
will leads some to question if God exist. It is hard to believe that a wholly good God
would create man and give him free will, yet to say that his life is all predetermined.
Many believe that God has divine foreknowledge, which is having knowledge of
something before it happens.
Since divine foreknowledge is to know things before it is even a choice, some
philosophers think that it is incompatible with freedom of the will. They come to this
conclusion using the argument that if there is freedom of will than there is no divine
foreknowledge, because if God had set out and planned ones entire life and has
knowledge of everything one would ever decide on, than one does not have free will. The
free will is predetermined, so that would mean that free will is only a lie. It reminds me of