Free Will's Problem Of Evil Argument Analysis

Free Will as a Response to the Problem of Evil

In this essay I will seek to discuss whether or not Free Will can be used as an effective response to the Problem of Evil argument. To begin with I will outline exactly what the problem of evil question is then outline the various components of the free will response and finally go on to assess the argument as a logically sound theodicy.
The problem of evil question puts forward a query against the existence of God and causes lots of problems for those who believe in a religion consisting of a single God and those trying to convince someone of a logically sound argument for the existence of God. We can first begin by defining what sort of God the problem of evil deals with. In this particular …show more content…

Philosophers such as J.L. Mackie argue that the only satisfactory solution to the problem of evil is to hold that one of the premises must be false; however, to assume that any of the first four premises were untrue would still deny the existence of the traditional Christian God and that to deny the fifth premise is false would be fallacious as we know evil exists through our own experiences. (J, 1983) Mackie argued that if a theodicy tried to justify the existence of God whilst maintaining that all the premises were true then it was a fallacious theodicy as God, he argued, would seek to eradicate evil and to suggest otherwise wouldn’t be a rational course of action. (J, 1983) Some other basic arguments for the logical existence of God and Evil include that, without evil we wouldn’t be able to experience positive emotions such as joy and so it is stated that the existence of evil is a necessity for the greater …show more content…

actions made by humanity that cause pain and suffering. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions still cause these evils to occur; however, they are completely outside of humanity’s control, but in the case of the problem of evil, not outside the control of God. The fact that these evils still occur can be linked back into the original argument and suggests that it is still not possible for God to be all powerful, knowing of the existence of evil and being morally good to allow these evils to happen (J, 1983). An adaptation of the Free Will Defence can also be seen in the thoughts of St Augustine of Hippo. He accredited the existence of suffering and evil in the world to the Original Sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He points out that while God may have put the evils on the earth, it was imperfections in humanity due to free will that led to the existence of suffering. It can be pointed out that in this case God could have chosen to take away our ability to think freely and completely remove any chance of moral evil existing in the world. However, in this way the we may as well be reduced to mindless robots which some philosophers argue is a greater evil than those caused by free will. If this were to be the case also then it would be reasonable to assume that by removing evil, the idea of good becomes worthless; if we do not know evil and