J.L. Mackie (along with Bertrand Russell) was one of the major philosophical opponents of religion in the twentieth century. Here Mackie criticizes the argument for God's existence that Taylor used in our previous exercise.Taylor had argued that, just as the existence of any particular contingent being requires an explanation, so too the existence of the totality of contingent beings requires an explanation. Since the totality of contingent beings is the world, he concluded that the existence of the world requires an explanation. He thought that the only plausible explanation is that the world is grounded on a necessary being -- which is God.
This exercise deals with the "Contingency and Sufficient Reason" section of a reading from Mackie in our anthology (pages 209-11 of Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (second edition), edited by Peterson, Hasker, Reichenbach, and Basinger). These computerized exercise materials are copyrighted (c) 2002 by Harry J. Gensler; but they may be distributed freely.