ABSTRACT
Evil is a problem for the theist in that a contradiction is involved in the fact of evil, on the one hand, and the belief in the omnipotence and perfection of God on the other McCloskey, God and Evil. Mackie's aim is to show that the proposition God is omnipotent, omniscient and all-good entails the proposition no free men created by God ever perform morally evil actions. A distinction must be made between moral evil and physical evil. The former roughly, is the evil which results from human choice or volition the latter is that which does not. Suffering due to an earthquake, would be a case of physical evil, suffering resulting from human cruelty would be a case of moral evil. Flew's objection, in essence, is the claim that an omnipotent being could have created men in such a way that although free they would be causally determined to perform only right actions.
