Mackie was born 25 August 1917 in Killara, Sydney. In section A, Mackie outlines the "Adequate Solutions" offered by some religious thinkers. Although he admits that these solutions work up to a point, Mackie describes them as "half-hearted" because, he argues, they don't take the idea of evil seriously enough. This, at least, is a better explanation than the hypothesis that there is a realm of objective moral facts to which some cultures have inferior epistemic access than others. J.L. Suppose there is a God, whom is composed of the above characteristics. A nd it is a logical … The problem of evil, in th e sense in w hich I shall be using th e phrase, is a problem only for someone w ho believes th at there is a G od w ho is both om nipotent an d w holly good. John Leslie Mackie (1917-1981), philosopher, was born on 25 August 1917 at Killara, Sydney, younger child of Scottish-born Alexander Mackie, principal of Teachers’ College, Sydney, and his wife Annie Burnett, née Duncan, a Sydney-born schoolteacher. Mackie’s The Miracle of Theism (1982) is a comprehensive look at a variety of answers to the question of god’s existence, from this latter sense of miracle. Mackie's 1977 essay begins by setting out the Problem of Evil & Suffering. Countless discussions take place daily by people of all religious beliefs in regards to the existence of a God and if a God did exist, then why is there so much evil in the world we live in. 2. Mackie was a 20th century philosopher best known for his critiques of religion and meta-ethics. Such variation is in itself merely a truth of descriptive morality, a fact of anthropology which entails neither first order nor second order ethical views. His mother, Annie Burnett Duncan, was a schoolteacher. J. L. Mackie – The Subjectivity ... differences in moral beliefs between different groups and classes within a complex community. Some of Mackie's detailed reasoning is hard to follow for a person without extensive training in the relevant branches of philosophy. (12) If evil and suffering exist, then God is either not omnipotent, not omniscient, .. such as Anthony Flew and J. L. Mackie have argued that an omnipotent God. Mackie begins the article by saying that he thinks that all the arguments for God’s “God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists. J.L. The most glaring weakness is in the step from the proposition that ‘we ought to seek the highest good’ to the claim that it … J.L. Life. Mackie concludes that the arguments for God are not convincing, either singly or in combination. That it does so is evidence that the people in whom this reaction occurs have been tending to objectify their concerns and purposes, have been giving them a fictitious external authority. Mackie argues that the best explanation of these phenomena is that moral judgments “reflect adherence to and participation in different ways of life” (1977: 36). 5 quotes from John Leslie Mackie: 'the abandonment of a belief in objective values can cause, at least temporarily, a decay of subjective concern and sense of purpose. J.L. Mackie wishes to disprove the existence of God, or at least the view of God being both omnipotent and wholly good, through an argument which uses the problem of the existence of evil. b u t w hat can be disproved from other beliefs th at he also holds. However, he bends over backward to give them a fair hearing. Here is how he lays the argument out: 1. JL Mackie – The Miracle of Theism (pages 110-115) But in whichever of these ways we interpret his conclusion, Kant’s argument is open to criticism. IV.—EVIL AND OMNIPOTENCE. 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