When Christians are confronting the Argument from Evil, they often use the Free Will Defense as an excuse.
According to Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, freewill is the ability to desire between alternatives. It is the ability to make an unforced decision between two or more alternatives (When Skeptics Ask p. 63).
The Free Will Defense therefore state: God, through his gift of free will, gave man the ability to distinguish and choose between good and evil, right or wrong. As a free agent, man has the potential to reach a higher degree of perfection and goodness than if he were a mere robot programmed to behave in a given manner. Thus, it is good that man has free will. However, men used this good power to bring evil into the universe by rebelling against their Creator. Evil did arise from good, not directly but indirectly, by the abuse of a good power called freedom. Freedom in itself is not evil. It is good to be free. But with freedom comes the possibility of evil.
This sounded like what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, “With great powers comes great responsibility.” Anyway, notice that the Free Will Defense only explain moral evil and not natural evil – earthquakes, typhoons, natural flood, tsunamis, hereditary diseases, wild animal attacks and worm infestation – evils that are not covered by having free will.
The Free Will Defense falls short on solving the Problem of Evil. It even contradicts with some common Christian beliefs.
a.) Bible
The Bible has some verses that say men are predestined. Here are some samples:
(1) “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,…. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Eph. 1:4-5)
(2) “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,…. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called….” (Rom. 8:28-30)
(3) “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48)
(4) “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13)
(5) “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11)
(6) “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10)
(7) “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you” (John 15:16)
(8) “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9 RSV)
(9) “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Prov. 16:9), (10) “He will carry out what he has planned for me, and of many such matters He is mindful” (Job 23:14 Mod. Lang), (11) “Only, let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him” (1 Cor. 7:17 RSV)
(12) “…your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16 NIV)
(13) “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Prov. 20:24)
(14) “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:3l) (15) “…whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,….” (Rev. 17:8)
(16) “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15), (17) “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44)
(18) “…no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65)
(19) “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39)
(20) “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Prov. 19:21 NIV)
We also have the story of the hardening of the heart of the Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus and how God was tempted by the devil to test Job as reference.
b.) Prophets and Prophesies
If free will is true then every events are just random outcome of events. If that is true then future events does not exist. Therefore, prophets cannot prophecies any future events.
c.) The Law of Cause and Effect is not compatible with freewill.
If everything, including every act, has a cause, how will it be possible for a person to have free will? If you believe that everything has a cause, then you accept causal determinism. According to the concept of determinism, all events, including human choices are determined or caused by another.
The principle of causality stated: Every effect has a cause. Majority of Christian agree to this since one of there proof for the existence of a God rest in this. It is undeniable! If it is true, then humans are bound to everything that happened to the universe since the sequence of cause and effect runs throughout the whole universe.
The famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) used this argument to defend Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb. According to Darrow, even if they (Leopold and Loeb) committed the hideous act, they never had any real control over their lives.
d.) The problem of divine pre-ordination.
If God already knows the future and no alternatives are possible, then every event is preordained. Free will has no place in a pre-ordained universe.
According to the Christian apologist Norman Giesler, free beings are the cause of evil (When Skeptics Ask p.64) and it seems he is suggesting that freedom from free will will be destroyed if we destroyed evil. But Christian believe that God also have freewill and it is impossible for God to do anything evil.
That means possessing free will and freedom does not necessary cause evil. Having free will and a guarantee against committing evil are metaphysically compatible. Rational beings are always attracted by what is apprehended as good.
Giesler noted that it is impossible for God to create free creatures that could not sin (When Skeptics Ask p.71) It is also impossible for God (who is an omnipotent being huh?) to guarantee humans will never sin because it will tamper their freedom. In addition, a world without evil is morally inferior.
So are these Christian apologists suggesting that God is inferior? Giesler said that the highest virtues and the greatest pleasures are impossible to achieve if there is not opposition as precondition. But God never faced these “evils” yet we considered Him as the epitome of all virtues.
Now is it really impossible for an omnipotent God to create a world without evil but still compatible with character building? Is evil necessary to build one’s character? An athlete can develop his potentials without facing any form of catastrophes. Surely, a world where humans can show their greatest potential without harm is possible for an omnipotent God.
What about for the greater good? What goodness does a child suffering from retardation brings for humanity? What does the death of thousand of people in natural disaster does to the goodness of an American watching the news on his TV while contemplating of beating his wife senseless…a thousand miles away?
Evil is not brought by human free choices and freedom. According to Daniel Dennett – to have freedom, we want self-control; we want to be rational, to govern our conduct by reason, to influence our own action – that is freedom.
If a person uses his freewill to challenge the Christian’s god claim…that is not evil, that is freedom.
If the Christian god will bring an atheist to hell for questioning his existence or if he will judge you because of your non-belief (John 3:16; 36, 5:39-4,0, 8:24, 12:48 and Luke 10:16) – that is coercion, and remember, coercion is evil.
Until next time,
John the Atheist
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