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Tue 18 Mar, 2008 04:55 am
Both Augustine and Irenaeus use the ida of freewill in theirn theodicies and suggest that it is from this that evil has entered the world. However, more recently this line of thinking has developed into a theodicy of its own, known as the freewill defence. It comes in many forms, but all of them seek to establish that it was necessary for God to give us freewill and that freewill necessarily means that there will be a possibility of evil. The freewill defence is normally used against moral evil, but it can also be used against natural evil, as the Augustinian Theodicy blames natural evils upon man's choice to fall from grace, as Augustine says, ''evil is either sin, or the punishment for sin.''
The Argument
The world is the best possible place for humans to be humans. This is because humans are free to make choices that may lead to both harm and good. This world allows both possibilities. Without the choice to do goodor to cause harm, we would not be free and so would be less than human. The reason for creating human beings, from God's point of view, is so that they can choose to come into a loving relationship with him. This is the highest good of all and for which all of us is intended. However, love is something that cannot be forced out of someone, but which can only result from a person's free choices. If humans are ever to be able to enter that loving relationship with God, then it must be a free choice. To have a free choice, humans must be free to turn towards God or turn away from him, as Vardy states, ''Human freedom is a necessary condition for loving God, and loving others.''
Personally, although i see why this could be used as a decent defence against the presence of evil in the world, i still believe that their is far too much evil around. For example, in the holocaust, why did 6m die rather than 3m. And it is for this reason that I think it is more probable that a 'survival of the fittest' is taking place, and that it is improbable that God exists, thus rendering the defence argument invalid.
One way in which we posess "God's image' is by our quality of free will. However, it does not follow that the possibility of evil necessitates the doing of evil.
Jesus could have sinned, but did not.
The argument that free will is the source of evil makes no sense. Human beings did not "choose" to suffer the conditions that compel some people to sin but do not overwhelm others. Human beings did not modify their own DNA to give their brains and bodies a propensity to evil. Human beings did not create the germs and parasites that cause so much misery.
At what point in their life did a person freely choose the biological compulsions, mental defects, or social conditioning that prevents them from exercising free will? And is it not a violation of free will if God allows a child to be raped by his priests, abused by their parents or murdered before they have the chance to accept or reject God? Why is a criminal's free will valued more by God than a child's?
Jesus broke several commandments (I have listed them before but will repost if you have conveniently forgotten again). If that isn't sinning, what is?
Paul (not Jesus) claimed that Jesus abolished the Law that God gave the Israelites. The OT says that any prophet who tries to turn the people away from the Law is a false prophet who must be put to death. So who really sinnned, here?
Which is why Jesus said "Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I came, not to destroy, but to fulfill . . ." The law is still valid in that it is our ". . . tutor leading to Christ . . ." (Galatians 2:24) But, we just don't stone adulterers any more.
When you listed the commandments Jesus "broke", I probably was away tending to my non a2k life.
You can list them again or provide a link.
You certainly have a right to be incensed over the vile conditions of this world. We all do. But they are not Jehovah's doing. I've explained many times before how our human condition has come about and what God has promised as a remedy. I will repost if you missed it.
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