Comparing Augustine And Free Will

An alternative problem to this theory regards God’s omnipotenence. If God is aware of our past, present and future it is then not possible for us to do anything on our own accord. Omniscience and free will are clearly incompatible. They are many resolutions to this problem; although some thinkers may believe that free will is not possible and that this is only apparent some thinkers believe that the two different states of an eternal God is a solution. Firstly, God as timeless may resolve this problem as if God is outside of time it could be interpreted that he knows what we will do but does not cause our actions as he is unchanging and outside of time. Secondly, God being everlasting may also be a solution. If God moves through time with his creation that he knows everything that is logically possible to know. God may know our actions but does not cause them. This is an important factor as one attribute of God offers

Evil is a concept that humans have developed to explain suffering and disaster. It is seen as the cause of suffering, Religious perspectives would argue that it is contrary to the will of their omnipotent being or predestination. The two types of evil are natural evil, evil not caused by humans such as tsunamis, and moral evil, evil caused by human such as rape and murder. However, this presents the problem of evil, presented by Epicurus; “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” (Epicurus, BC 341-270) This proved the inconsistent triad. If God is benevolent,

This I believe to be true because even if one is a moral person and has never stolen before, they have at least thought of what they would do with the item that they are looking at. An example given to me about this was in my psychology class where the professor gave an example of someone setting a briefcase full of money on a table while he leaves the room in front of hundreds of people and that everyone would at least contemplate what they would do with the money if they were to take it. This example I believe connects with the idea that people do bad or evil things even though they know it is the wrong thing to do. This can be connected to free will because one is given the free will to be able to think about and to commit evil acts that they know are wrong. This part of Book 2 would imply that we do have free will which helps Augustine’s argument that we are capable of free will, and is what causes the suffering in the world. This part of Book 2 can also be helpful because Augustine thought that evil does exist, and evil is just the absence of good. This is one of Augustine’s reasons for why you need God because God is the highest good. The only real contradiction to this argument that I can think of is that if we have the freedom of the will then how would one explain predestination? Freedom of the will and predestination need to be exclusive of each other because

In the book Confessions Augustine seeks to find out why and how evil exist in the world and what role god plays in the existence of evil. Not entirely convinced that evil exist or is what Manicheaism gives an explanation of, being that god is incapable of preventing the existence of evil (p.113). Augustine investigates the existence of evil by looking into two aspects, the nature of evil and free will, and with free will the ability to make decisions which result in sins. Both of these causes are investigated by Augustine in providing a conclusion which re assure him that god is all knowing, powerful, and good. Augustine concludes that evil does not exist but more so is the absence of good in things. Augustine proves this by claiming how evil is not a creation of god meant to

He philosophised original sin and about evil and free will. Original sin is the teaching that everyone is born sinful and with a desire to disobey God, as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s actions in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). The effect of original sin is damnation, where, until a person dies, that person will be distanced from God. There is possible redemption through baptism. According to Augustine, original sin explains the “presence of sin in human history” (genocide, war, cruelty, exploitation, abuse) (Class notes, August 8 2015). This means that evil has entered the world due to a disconnection with God. The reasons for evil according to Augustine is that God is not present in all things and that evil only happens because of God’s distance from material reality Class notes, August 8 2015). Augustine stated, “God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.” This purports that humans are too distracted by the materialistic to fully accept God into their lives. Also, people have the free will to live ‘Godly’ lives, but individuals can also choose evil by giving into the pursuit of worldly pleasure, therefore, being less like God. Additionally, humans cannot take all the credit for when they do good, but take all the blame if they do evil. Augustine philosophised about original sin and its occurrence through evil being present in the world, this

Puts forward the issue that God knows future actions people so they can’t be free and that if our choices are free then God cannot have foreknowledge of them and hence isn’t omniscience

Augustine: God who knows all, who can do all, and who desires the best created the world as we know it, a world in which free agents exist. Some of the God's creatures have disobeyed him and have chosen to do evil and as the result, moral evil exists. God permits it because the best type of the universe is one in which free agents exists and bringing good out of evil is better than not permitting evil to exist.

Growing up as a Christian, in the Christian church, I was always taught that God knows everything. God knows the beginning and end, and everything in between. This is something that, until one starts asking tough questions, one usually accepts. My goal in writing this essay is not to change someone’s beliefs about God, or beliefs in God, but instead to challenge people to quote, un-quote, think outside the box. Consider the pros and cons of God knowing everything and also be open to other solutions. There are a few questions that need to be answered when one considers God’s knowledge. First, if God knows the future with absolute certainty, then, are we as humans truly free? Second, if God does not know the future

So he questions the root of evil, and wonders why hasn’t God simply rid the world of it, since he is the ruler of everything. Augustine is rather anguished in his quest for knowledge and the truth, but it is his pride which prevents him from progress. However,

To begin, Augustine believes that humans are superior to non-human animals. It can be said that this is because we have reason and rule over them. As superior human beings we have the ability to domesticate animals giving us power over them and making us superior to them. An example used in the text on page 12 and 13; Augustine argues that we not only tame animals by their bodies but by their souls as well. He goes on to argue with Evodius asking him if he thinks an animal as strong and vicious as some can be, could it take over a human being. Which Evodious answers that it is not possible. Augustine goes on with his argument making a strong point that if animals could exceed humans in strength and most physical abilities then why isn’t it the other way around, that animals are superior to

From the portrayal of Augustine, he explains the argument that of which people can choose to be good or choose to be evil. Of those of which who choose to be good, he believes that it has been predetermined by God prior to birth. Augustine states that people can choose to be good but, explains that God has not chosen ones’ soul for salvation and the choice to be good has no relevance towards their salvation. Those who act horrible and in a worthless manor but are chosen by God as good, then those will be saved by God no matter what their actions or behavior is in life. Augustine claims that the matter of evil is the root of the aspect of free will. God is not the source of evil as proclaimed that he is one that saves all but, that it’s the

In Book Two of Augustine’s Free Choice of the Will, Augustine argues with Evodius about what it means to understand. The book started by both Augustine and Evodius talking about the free choice of will and where comes from. Evodius said, without free will we could never sin, so why would God give it to us? Therefore, questioning if god knew man would do evil and abuse free will. But, Augustine then explained that “without wrong, there is no right.” If we did not know what the wrong thing to do was, we would never know what would be the right choice therefore the fear of punishment for doing what was wrong is what makes us do good becoming a morality question.

In chapter 7 in The Confessions Augustine ponders the idea of evil. He aims to determine the cause and solution of it. Augustine believes that everyone has freewill or choice to be good. If humans possessed no good within them they would not exist (Augustine, page 174). The definition he was told was this: evil is everyone’s individual choice, however, he was attempting to establish the truth of this description.

In sum, God does not impact the freedom of the human free will due to his foreknowledge; He retains the will’s ability to sin for the order of the universe and the possibility of redemption from sins; He utilizes Original Sin as a necessary struggle for human to use their free will to turn back to HIm, so that they proves the worth of their souls. Through this close examination of On the Free Choice of the Will, we are able to trace Augustine’s opinions on how and why God made human free will as it is now. Nevertheless, Augustine considers not enough the undeserved suffering caused by others’ sins, which will only be addressed by further research on the

As previously mentioned, if God imparted on us the responsibility of our own actions, then he should not be blamed for the evilness of this world. We human beings crave into the temptation to blame God for every small thing that goes wrong in our life or does not go our way while at the same time arguing that free will exist. We become hypocrites of our own words and actions while failing to realize it. We believe we have the freedom to do what we want yet blame our actions on God, who only wants good for us. One needs to realize that God watches over us, not implies orders for evil to reckon us. We are responsible for the evil in this world for our human freedom and selfishness created evil. Augustine prominently argued that God was not responsible