The Problem of Evil - Common Sense Atheism

The Global Argument from Evil 63
that he never does anything morally wrong—that he could not possibly
do anything morally wrong. 6 Omnipotence and moral perfection are,
as I said, non-negotiable components of the idea of God. A being that is
the greatest being possible and is less powerful than it might have been
(or is less powerful than some other possible being might have been)
is a contradiction in terms, and so is a being who is the greatest being
possible and sometimes acts wrongly. If the universe was made by an
intelligent being, and if that being is less than omnipotent (and if there’s
no other being who is omnipotent), then the atheists are right: God
does not exist. If the universe was made by an omnipotent being, and if
that being has done even one thing that was morally wrong (and if there
isn’t another omnipotent being, one who never does anything morally
wrong), then the atheists are right: God does not exist. If the Creator of
the universe lacked either omnipotence or moral perfection, and if he
claimed to be God, he would be either an impostor or confused—an
impostor if he claimed to be both omnipotent and morally perfect, and
confused if he admitted to being either not omnipotent or not morally
perfect and still claimed to be God.
I began this lecture with a simple statement of the global argument
from evil. One premise of this argument was: ‘If there were a God, we
should not find vast amounts of horrendous evil in the world.’ But the
statement ‘‘If there were an omnipotent and morally perfect being, we
should not find vast amounts of horrendous evil in the world’’ might
well be false if the all-powerful and morally perfect being were ignorant,
and not culpably ignorant, of certain evils. But this is not a difficulty
for the proponent of the global argument from evil, for God is, as we
have seen, omniscient. The proponent of the simple argument could,
in fact, defend his premise by an appeal to far weaker theses about the
extent of God’s knowledge than ‘God is omniscient’. If the evils of the
world constitute an effective prima facie case for the conclusion that
there is no omnipotent, morally perfect, and omniscient being, they
present an equally effective prima facie case for the conclusion that there
is no omnipotent and morally perfect being who has even as much
knowledge of what goes on in the world as we human beings have. The
full panoply of omniscience, so to speak, does not really enter into the
initial stages of a presentation and discussion of an argument from evil.
Omniscience—omniscience in the full sense of the word—will become
important only later, when we come to discuss the free-will defense.
It is time now to turn to our promised ideal debate, the debate
between Atheist and Theist before the audience of ideal agnostics.