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Alvin Plantinga's Arguments Against The Existence Of Evil

464 Words2 Pages

Alive today, Alvin Plantinga is an American analytical philosopher. Alvin Plantinga argues with the topic the problem with evil, referencing John Mackie’s conclusion who argues against the existence of God with Evil and Omnipotence. Plantinga thinks those who believe like Mackie are mistaken in thinking that the existence of evil is contradictory with the existence of God. Plantinga believes that there is no logical unpredictability between the existence of evil and the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, wholly good God. Plantinga describes sets of propositions may or may not be contradictory and/or to be inconsistent. Mackie’s groups of propositions are God is omnipotent, God is wholly good, and evil exists. The third proposition …show more content…

If God creates creatures that are significantly free, he cannot determine them to do only what is right meaning he must create creatures that are capable of moral evil. Therefore, God cannot guarantee that there will not be evil in the world because a world containing creatures that are significantly free to perform more moral good than evil actions are more valuable. An omnipotent being (God) can't make contradictions be true. Therefore, if God creates a world where there are beings with free will. God can't guarantee that some creatures won't sometimes choose to act badly. God can't guarantee that that world won't contain evil. All evil in the world is the result of free actions by created creatures and there is no possible world God could have created that contains a better balance of both moral good and evil. The Free Will Defense concludes that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good, and God creates free men who sometimes preform morally evil actions is not contradictory or necessarily false. "It is possible that God, even being omnipotent, could not create a world with free creatures who never choose evil. Furthermore, it is possible that God, even being omnibenevolent, would desire to create a world which contains evil if moral goodness requires free moral

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