Humans come to understand experiences through the basic functions of the mind. The word "experience" refers not only to personal involvement in certain events, but also to everything that can be detected through the senses, i.e.: people, inanimate objects and feelings. The ability to define, classify, extend knowledge to other things and compare are the fundamental functions. Without these functions we could not gather knowledge from our experiences, nor draw conclusions about their meaning. The physical world would ultimately be incomprehensible. This leads to the question of how we can understand things that are not in the physical world, such as God. Our senses cannot directly experience things outside of this world, so we are drastically limited in our ability to know and understand God. The best possible solution is to combine our faith in God and our earthly experiences to create a better understanding of God and his qualities. Our experiences of evil are central to understanding and appreciating God. Although it is commonly claimed that the existence of evil undermines the claim that God is omnibenevolent, this is contrary to the truth. Through our ability to extend knowledge to arrive at new truths and our ability to compare experiences, our minds can use the existence of evil to further understand and appreciate God and his omnibenevolence. First, it is important to illustrate how extension and comparison work in everyday life. -everyday situations before moving on to how these functions help us understand God. Let's say you have a friend who you've known your whole life. We'll call him Patrick. Patrick is a generally reliable friend, so you're content to have this... middle of paper... containing varying amounts of goodness, something has to be good beyond all other things. In such a world, we might know that God is good beyond all else, but without evil the significance of that knowledge is diminished. When there is good and evil, it adds another dimension. A tension is added. Even if it is a psychological response, humans are more constrained when there are two opposing sides. We see God as so good that He can easily overcome and conquer the wickedest of things. Mackie is wrong to argue that it is fallacious to believe that the universe is better off with evil. Without evil, our minds could not begin to understand how special God truly is. Works Cited Mackie, J. L. "Evil and Omnipotence." Philosophy of religion. 4th ed. Eds. Michael Peterson, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 288-296. Press.