Following Plantinga, we have seen that no explicit or formal contradiction is involved in the following propositions:
1. God is omnipotent.
2. God is wholly good.
and
3. Evil exists.
We considered Mackie’s attempt to demonstrate an implicit contradiction by adding the following two propositions:
4. A good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can.
and
5. There are no limits to what an omnipotent being can do.
However, we saw this fails to establish an implicit contradiction since #4 is not necessarily true. Is it possible to develop #4 so as to end up with a proposition that is necessarily true? Let’s try again:
4a. Every good thing always eliminates evil that it knows about and can eliminate.
Is this necessarily true? No! Because it is possible to conceive of a good person knowing of an evil state of affairs and having the ability to eliminate it but choosing not to do so because such action would result in an even more evil state of affairs. For example, amputating a leg because of excruciating pain, though the pain would soon have subsided had the leg been allowed to heal.
It is also possible to conceive of a situation where a trivial evil goes together with a great good. Under such circumstances eliminating the evil also means foregoing the far greater good.
Consequently, we will need to develop 4a in a way that overcomes such possibilities if we are to end up with a necessarily true proposition demonstrating an implicit contradiction between the omnipotence and goodness of God, on the one hand, and the reality of evil, on the other.
To be continued.
Posted May 16, 2009
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