Free Will Vs. Augustine's Free Choice Of The Will

Free will comes with both the bad and the good, but it is up to each person to do bad or do good. Personal evil exists everywhere from every relationship and to every activity; it can be corrupted and distorted (Ford 70). Evil exists even in our friendships, marriages and families. From the relationships people have and the things that they do, comes with intentions. These intentions can be whole-heartedly good such as love or strictly evil such as betrayal.

“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n…Here we may reign secure, and in my choice to reign is worth ambition “ (Paradise lost.120-21). This explaining humans can't be naturally born to act evil but it can

Saint Augustine's Deduction that Free Will is a Good Gift from God Before the central theme of this essay is analytically summarized, it is important to note a few propositions already established in the conversations between Saint Augustine and Evodius. Firstly, Saint Augustine has already ascertained that God gave human beings free choice of the will – Evodius is also sure of this proposition. He deduces that since our existence came from God, then it must be God who gave us free will.

A new born baby is not born with sinful thoughts. Babies are axiomation of purity and innocence . Experiences such as a bad childhood, neglect by parents, abuse, power changes humans into being evil. How someone is nurtured also determines if they will become good or evil. Ego, lust, jealousy, betrayal, failure, and greed are some causes of evil.One is not born evil.

No one is born good or evil; it is one's environment and the people they encounter in life which makes them good or evil. A lot of time it is not the individual's fault of the way they are, they might have seen so many bad doings that, they are use to it and might think that it is right. One is not born with a vision of knowing what is wrong and what is right in life, but learns when something happens to

He explains justice as “ the virtue by which all people are given their due” (August 20,1993). In On Free Choice of the Will Evodius says that, “[he] acknowledges that all four virtues that [Augustine] just described, … are present in those who love their own good will and value it highly” (Augustine 21, 1993). Here Evodius is stating that by living with these four virtues we are able to live a happy life that is in accordance with our good will. Augustine states that “to have a good will is to have something far more valuable than all earthly kingdoms and pleasures…” (Augustine 20, 1993). Here he is saying that to be happy in life you must have more than just temporary possessions such as money or health, Augustine defines these possessions as temporal objects. In order to have a good will we must make a distinction between temporal objects and eternal objects; he explains these differences in the temporal and eternal laws. “The eternal law demands that we purify our love by turning it away from temporal things and toward what is eternal” (Augustine 25,

It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.

It can then be deduced that belief to Augustine is not a choice; the choice arises through man’s action. Acts of choosing to believe God are simply a reaffirmation of one’s belief, while choosing the world and not God in one’s actions is simply denying God, although one can never fully disbelieve: the world is a substitute for God, as previously examined. The choice available restricts free will while allowing men to choose their actions, not their belief. Further, the fall of man, where human weaknesses stem from, presupposes God’s existence, as does Augustine. Consequently, choices to Augustine reflect our denial or acceptance of the truth that God is real. In this theological perspective, Augustine supports God’s existence completely, and his ascetic choice further upholds his belief. God’s creation further explains Augustine’s perspective on belief, Augustine stating that “[t]he only thing that does not come from [God] is what does not exist,” and that combined with “ any movement of the will away from [God who is] and towards that which is in a lesser way” (178). Denying God, moving away from God, who exists, is a movement defined as both a “crime and sin” (178). This freedom, again, does not deny God, but is, in spite of his existence, a means to explain one’s belief or doubt. Augustine’s Confessions clearly describes this path of sin and denial that unquestionably leads to a necessary habit of committing it, resulting in Augustine himself becoming a slave to sin. It is only by God’s power, the power than humanity does not possess, that can help man escape the godless way of life that is living through sin. Belief of God then, is not a choice for Augustine; it is our free will that allows the choice of living for or against God, and why resisting temptation and sin and living for God completely is a main idea throughout the Confessions; by choosing the world, one denies

Evil can be categorized into two forms, moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is brought about by bad choices that stem from our free will. Natural evil is bad things that happen to people, whether they deserve them or not. The problem with evil is,

The play Antigone by Sophocles demonstrates throughout its story elements of Saint Augustine’s choice of the free will by involving choices of what she believes is morally right and not the law that is dictated by others. Antigone goes through her journey by making choices that are questionable but substantially true against the government by burying her brother because it is a cause that is greater than her and is what needs to be done.

To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times

After rereading Augustine’s On Choice of the Free Will there are a few ideas that are discussed in the book that I will be identifying in this essay. The first one is why are human beings superior to non-human animals, following with why Augustine thinks a human is perfectly ordered and finally whether or not Augustine believes that a human being can be compelled to become disordered, or a slave to inordinate desire.

 Evil doesn 't necessarily have to be an action by a human; it can also be a result of a natural disaster such as: hurricanes, earthquakes, illness, etc. A hurricane can take away everything from thousands of humans. This causes the people to have no home, clothes, or food. This is also a form of evil, due to the suffering it causes. This is called natural evil. People can bring about moral evil upon themselves, although, they rarely can bring natural evil upon themselves. There is a distinct difference between the two, and one evil does not cause the other. The reason I point the

This paper examines St. Augustine’s view on evil. St. Augustine believed that God made a perfect world, but that God's creatures turned away from God of their own free will and that is how evil originated in the world. Augustine assumes that evil cannot be properly said to exist at all, he argues that the evil, together with that suffering which is created as punishment for sin, originates in the free nature of the will of all creatures. According to Augustine, God has allowed evil to exist in the world because it does not conflict with his righteousness. He did not create evil but is also not a victim of it. He simply allows it to exist.

In many cases the question of problem of evil is stemmed back to humanity. Throughout the years, “free will” has been under discussion. According to the Bible, Matthew 22:37; tells us that God has given each individual free will because it then allows us to love God with our whole heart if we so desire to, but doesn’t force it upon anyone. But again, in Genesis 1:26, the Bible says that God created humans in his own image unlike animals, we resemble our Creator in our capacity to display such qualities as love and justice, and like our creator, we have free will. So it has become obvious that yes, free will does exist-but is it the problem of evil? In my opinion a man's free will can most definately be related to society's