THE PROBLEM OF EVIL + SUFFERING

Plantings - Free Will Defence

  • Argument that God has given free will to bring about a greater good
  • A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil action) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all

Augustine - For a runaway horse is better than a stone

  • This represents the idea that a horse that has freedom + has runaway is better than just having a stone/being stuck/programmed/conditioned to act in a certain way

CS Lewis - Free will, though it makes evil possible, also makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having

  • We could not have goodness without free will - which means we must also have the risk of evil + suffering
  • Those who defend the Free Will Defence have 2 things to prove:
    1.That free will necessarily leads to moral evil

Those who defend the Free Will Defence have 2 things to prove

  1. That free will necessarily leads to moral evil - it's not possible to have free will + not moral evil in the world - if you allow people to have free will, there is a risk that they will use it in the wrong way
  2. That the results of having free will are worth the price - is free will worth it if we have all this evil + suffering within the world ?

Swinburne - 'The less (God) allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom + responsibility he gives them

Alvin Plantinga - 'The actualisation of a world containing moral good is not just up to God alone; it also depends upon what the significantly free creatures of the world would do'- Key Text = God, Freedom, Evil

  • In order to give us freedom + responsibility, God had to risk us being able to cause chaos/destruction - it was part of the 'package'
  • Ultimately, God's role is to provide us with freedom + responsibility, it is then over to us whether the world is filled with goodness, or evil + suffering

John Mackie

First Order Goods

First Order Evils

Second Order Goods

Second Order Evils

  • In order to criticise the free will defence, he has to explain what it is, this is his way of explaining it - the free will defence states that we could not have first order goods and second order goods without freedom
  • These goods have to be freely chosen in order to have value
  • If they are not being freely chosen by us, then why are we being rewarded for them? why are they seen as being good because they are being done automatically?
  • Its like congratulating a machine for something it's been programmed to do, whereas if you have freedom it gives these order goods value + meaning
  • Whole point is if you have freedom, that means you have choices (to do order goods or order evils)
  • Happiness + Pleasure
  • Sympathy, understanding, kindness, compassion, love, generosity, self-sacrifice
  • Unhappiess, pain +
  • Spite, meanness, envy, jealousy, greed, selfishness

Third Order Good

  • Freedom (greater good)

Fourth Order Good

  • God

Summary - God is justified in allowing evil in the universe because it permits the freedom to choose or reject the good. It teaches us to be morally responsible + gives meaning to moral goodness