One argument, known as the free will defense, claims that
evil is caused not by God but by human beings, who must be allowed to choose evil if they are to have free will
. … Natural evils, in other words, can help cultivate virtues such as courage and generosity by forcing humans to confront danger, hardship, and need.
How does free will solve the problem of evil?
The free will defense solves the problem of evil by
claiming that creatures have power to exert freely some control over their circumstances
. Creatures can use freedom for good or evil; evil results from improper creaturely use of freedom.
Can free will cause evil?
God
, being wholly good, has created humans with free will and we are responsible for evil by the exercise of our free will. If God were to stop us doing evil we would not be free, and therefore would be unable to do good. It is better that God allows us to be free, even though our freedom has resulted in evil.
What was one of the problems with the free will defense?
There are also two objections to the idea that free will can explain enough evil: [3] Suppose that free will is compatible with divine foreknowledge, and
incompatible with determinism
. Still, free will, even if it is a good thing, is not good enough to justify all the evil in the world that results from it.
How does the free will defense respond to the logical problem of evil?
One argument, known as the free will defense, claims that
evil is caused not by God but by human beings, who must be allowed to choose evil if they are to have free will
. … Natural evils, in other words, can help cultivate virtues such as courage and generosity by forcing humans to confront danger, hardship, and need.
What are the 3 types of evil?
According to Leibniz, there are three forms of evil in the world:
moral, physical, and metaphysical
.
What is the problem with evil and suffering?
Moral evil and suffering – this is
suffering caused by the actions of humans
. Examples include acts of murder, and war. Natural evil and suffering – this is suffering that is caused by nature and has nothing to do with the actions of humans. Examples include earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and disease.
Can the problem of evil be solved?
From an atheistic viewpoint, the problem of evil
is solved trivially
and thereby in accordance with the principle of Occam’s razor: the existence of evil and suffering is reconciled with the assumption that an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God exists by assuming that no God exists.
What causes moral evil?
Moral evil is any morally
negative event caused by the intentional action or inaction of an agent, such as a person
. An example of a moral evil might be murder, war or any other evil event for which someone can be held responsible or culpable.
What are the causes of evil?
Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives. Elements that are commonly associated with personal forms of evil involve unbalanced behavior including
anger, revenge, hatred, psychological trauma, expediency, selfishness, ignorance, destruction and neglect
.
What is the problem with free will?
Logical determinism. The notion that all propositions, whether about the past, present or future, are either true or false. The problem of free will, in this context, is
the problem of how choices can be free
, given that what one does in the future is already determined as true or false in the present.
What the Bible says about free will?
The Bible testifies to
the need for acquired freedom because no one “is free for obedience and faith till he is freed from sin’s dominion
.” People possess natural freedom but their “voluntary choices” serve sin until they acquire freedom from “sin’s dominion.” The New Bible Dictionary denotes this acquired freedom for …
Who gave humans free will?
Christians believe that
God
gave humans free will. This is the ability for humans to make their own decisions. It means that although God made a world and it was good , it is up to humans whether they choose to do good or bad deeds.
Why does the free will defense not work?
L. Mackie has presented the objection that God, being omnipotent and omnibenevolent, would easily be able to create the best of all possible worlds. He reasons that
such a world would be one in which all humans use their free will only for good – something they do not do
. Hence, the free-will defense fails.
Do we actually have free will?
A common and straightforward view is that,
if our choices are predetermined, then we don’t have free will
; otherwise we do. … Therefore, what we are really asking is simply whether our choices are determined. In this context, a free-willed choice would be an undetermined one.
What is the libertarian argument for free will?
In particular, libertarianism is an incompatibilist position which argues that
free will is logically incompatible with a deterministic universe
. Libertarianism states that since agents have free will, determinism must be false.
