PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Atheism, Omnipotence, Oxford University Press
4 Dec 2020
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The traditional arguments for the existence of god have been fairly thoroughly criticized by philosophers. But the [theist] can, if he wishes, accept this criticism. He can admit that no rational proof of god"s existence is possible. And he can still retain all that is essential to his position, by holding that god"s existence is known in some other, non-rational way. I think, however, that a more telling criticism can be made by way of the traditional problem of evil. He must now be prepared to believe, not merely what cannot be proved, but what can be disproved from other beliefs that he holds. ". (quoted by brian davies, in brian davies, ed. , philosophy of religion : a guide and anthology (oxford: oup, 2000), p. 53 davies reprints the mackie paper, Mccloskey wrote in a similar vein in 1960 in a paper entitled god and evil" (philosophical quarterly 10: 97-114): If there were a god, there would be no evil.
