Alvin Plantinga is the most influential figure in recent philosophy of religion. He is often credited with having restored the respectability of theism among mainstream analytic philosophers. Although coming from a Calvinist tradition, he now teaches at Notre Dame.Plantinga here defends the consistency of theism against Mackie -- who had argued that theism is inconsistent in combining these three judgments:
1. God is omnipotent.
This exercise deals with a reading from Plantinga in our anthology (pages 274-87 [skipping 287-301] 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.
2. God is wholly good.
3. Evil exists.