5.0 out of 5 based on 1 reviews. – Customer review on 29/05/2010

The counterattack to Swineburne's, "the Existence of God, Mackie is more analytic and less given to arbitrary speculation then his opponent, willing to give credit where is due and being critical of theism without being overly biased or dogmatic. Presents all of the problems with the ontological argument, extends them to the cosmological argument, argues again Berkeley's theism (if he doesnt allow material outside perception then why does he allow ideas -- why not phenomenalism), also mentioning the design argument and giving a lengthy attack on theodicy (he uses compatibilism like Flew- he is yet to use the argument from philosophy of religion). He analyzes the relative virtues of faith and reason, passion (william James's idea that all things being equal we should at least try the religion out) and utilitarian reason(pascal's wagers), as well as the nature of religious language (ie D Z Phillips on Wittgensteins philosophy of religion).

I do have a few concern's with mackie's belief that if value is intrinsic in actions then it fails to require a supernatural agent to make it so- this may be somewhat of a missapprehension of Newmann's pt). Also his argument as the continuing paradox of omnipotence is due toa incorrect conflaction with logical and physical necessity, as well as teh fact that free will is not uncontrollable but is uncontrolled (though it is uncontrollable in essence). Omnificence seems to make the mistake between a partial and a full cause of things