As Schmitt appears at the pearly gates he demands to know how an all powerful and benevolent God could allow the innocent to suffer in such a way. As expected, if I was in the exact position I would think about the situation and ask the same and similar question to try to understand God's actions. For example, if God is all-powerful and all-benevolent, how could he allow these atrocities to happen? In addition, since God is also supposed to be the creator of the universe and everything in it, how could he even create evil or choose to include it in this world? Moreover, why would he need evil at all if he is powerful enough to eliminate it altogether, and smart enough to know exactly how he ought to do so? In the Bible, 1 Peter 3:18 states, "For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God." In my opinion, I believe there is no simple answer to any of these questions, and that fact may suggest to some people that perhaps God does not exist. Throughout this essay I will convey and evaluate two different positions of J.L Mackie and Peter Van Inwagen to prove that there is no correct answer.
In the article "Evil and Omnipotence" by J.L. Mackie, Mackie criticizes the argument for even the existence of God by stating that parts of the essential theological doctrine are inconsistent with one another. Mackie demonstrates that the contradiction is a logical problem, and states this becomes a reality only for theists who believe God to be both omnipotent and "wholly" good.
In the article, Mackie mentions that the problem of evil is defined by the contradiction of five theistic views. Mackie mentions these views that: God is omnipotent, God is wholly good, evil exists, good is opposed to evil, good cannot exist without evil, and there are no limits as to what an omnipotent thing can do. Mackie begins to proceed and discuss the fallacious solutions involved.
