ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the first of three significant challenges for religious belief - the problem of evil. A common response to the logical problem of evil is to argue that evil arises from the misuse of human free will, for which evil is a price worth paying. Saadya argues that, because God is just and merciful towards human beings, God gives human beings the power and the ability to choose to do what God commands, and to refrain from what is forbidden. Both an action and abstaining from an action are positive acts, because when someone abstains from an action he chooses the opposite. Mackie examines several possible responses to the logical problem of evil, each of which, he argues, compromises divine omnipotence and thereby renders the resulting position no longer recognisably theistic. Plantinga concludes that there is no explicit or formal contradiction between statements asserting God's omnipotence, omniscience and goodness.
