People Do Not Have Free Will Essay

This sounds like he is simply speaking in circles about the subject. He tries to say that God knows about the future, but he knows about our free will, which will give us the power to decide things, but in the end is also foreknown by God. This is where I start to defer from his beliefs, since I believe that free will is the cause of evil, but that God should be taken out of the equation. While it can argued that God only knows of all the possibilities and not what will directly happen, which would make it so that he is providing free will and is part of a triangle relation between himself, free will, and evil, it is simply much more logical to believe that if there is a God, then there is no free will, and if that is such, God is the originator of evil.

A very good argument to defend their belief is Richard Swinburne’s “free will defense” that can be found on his work called “Why God Allows Evil.” Swinburne believe in the idea of theodicy as the central core of evil, or the judgement of divine being in the view of evil and its existence. According to Swinburne, the definition of evil comes in two types. The harm that was caused by another human to another human is called Moral Evil. They may have reason to inflict these action, but it is not a valid reason. Believers of God believe that God gave mankind free will. A world without free will is perfect and boring. The reason why God gives mankind free will is to test them if they will do the right thing. Also by doing this, it will force them to be responsible of their actions, because consequences will follow like, prosecution with jail time or for believers, the idea of denial in heaven and endless suffering in hell. If the idea of free will is true, then God is truly all powerful, all present (God is watching all the time) and all knowing, but not all loving God. To make this big gamble it is impossible to be all loving. If God is truly all loving, then he can use his all-powerful traits to make the consequences less painful, or at least keep the consequences to the evil doers, not to the innocent people. It may sound absurd but

Therefore, it is not the case that God is an omnipotent and wholly good being.

In order for us to ask whether God is good and all-knowing or negligent to the evil andsorrow our lives contain, we must examine ourselves. It is not a question of God’s love or thepresence of evil, but how we live and perceive evil in our lives.The journey to answeringwhether God is good or why bad things happen to the undeserving will be discussed in thefollowing response.Our creator gave us the ability to make our own choices through free will. When Godgave us this wonderful gift, one can assume that he did not give us free choice for the purpose ofcreating evil. However, when God gave Adam and Eve free will, He allowed them to make theirown choice, good or bad. God understood that giving us free will allowed us to make our ownmistakes and successes. Gary Watts speaks of this with an analogy about letting his newlylicensed son drive the family car. “We are called upon to make a choice concerning freedom, andthe choice is a costly one. In exchange for something of value, we must give up our control andlive with uncertainty. We must take a risk” (Watts, 1999, pg. 41). In order to give loved-ones thefreedom to act on their own, you must relinquish control of their decisions. This is what God didfor mankind when he gave Adam and Eve free will. It is the choices that people make thatwelcome bad situations into their life. This is not always the case, but can be proven in asignificant portion of people’s lives. As Newton states in his third law of physics, “With everyaction,

The first problem of evil claimed that a good God couldn’t possibly exist because evil still exists. The respond was that everything that God created is good. Evil only exists because it creeps in where God is not present. The second problem claimed that if an all good being existed, it would end suffering if he truly new about it and was able to stop it. So a God who is all knowing, all good, and all-powerful, must

“If God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and perfectly good, then there can be no evil because being all powerful, He could do something about any existing evil; being all knowing, He would know about any existing evil and being perfectly good, He would want to eliminate any existing evil. But there is no evil, therefore God is either not all powerful (He can’t do anything about the evil), not all knowing (He

If we were to be controlled by a force beyond our control, alike God, then we would be perfectly good beings who would always choose the good decision over the evil one. Several of the evil in this world are mentioned to be caused by humans and the choices they execute. In other words, it is implemented that we live in a world where our actions aren’t

First, Did God create evil? No God did not create evil or even cause it. When God created all creation he said it was very good Genesis 1:31. James 1:13 says “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (NKJV). Therefore, when evil things happen we should not be quick to blame God as the one who caused it though he may let things occur to test us as Psalm 11:5 says, “the Lord tests the righteous” (NKJV). A prime example that God does not cause evil but lets it occur to test is in the book of Job and serves as an example to us of why there is evil in everyday life is occurring.

Since God is the epitome of good, then his intentions on creating things to be would have to be good. Say a couple of hundred people were taking a flight to Hong Kong; and during this flight, the plane’s engine malfunctions causing it to crash and kill all passengers. To most people, this would be the cause of an accident, but to me, this would be considered purely evil.

“The Problem of Evil”, evil is defined as something that is able to be known, can’t be defined but you know it when you see it. Determining what evil is, a person would need a sense of what “good” is to compare between the two to have an objective. Everyone has free will and God could have not given us free will but He has and could have easily decided for us what he allows us to decide for ourselves. Plantinga gives an example of the condition transworld depravity in which creatures choose freely to do evil in the world,” the free will defense” (Evans &Manis p. 166). If we are always choosing right then we really aren’t choosing at all and there is no free will in that concept. If we are made to choose God then what would be the point in

There is much evil in the world, which can be split into either natural or moral evil. Natural evil refers to suffering caused by natural disasters whereas moral evil refers to suffering which has been caused by human actions. Examples of natural evil would be cancer, birth defects, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Also, examples of moral evil would be fatal car accidents caused by alcohol consumption, child molestation, ISIS beheadings, and the Holocaust. Many people question how God can exist while this evil occurs. If God exists, he would be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. He would have the ability, knowledge, and desire to prevent evil. With the obvious existence of evil, God must not then exist. The problem of evil arise only with a conception of the 3O God because if one of those properties were not there, evil could exist. God existing without omnipotent, he would have the knowledge to stop evil and have the good will to want to stop evil but would not be able to stop the evil acts. If he was without omniscient, he would be able to stop evil and would want to stop evil but would not have the knowledge to do so. And finally, if he did not possess omnibenevolence, he would have the knowledge and power to stop evil but not the morals to want to do

The existence of evil in the world caused people to questioned the existence of the perfect God. If God was truly omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good, then why would he let terrible things happen to good people? In recent news, we have witnessed many innocent deaths caused by a school shooting, a child raped, natural disaster, and other tragic events. If God was in control of everything, does this means that he allows these bad things to happen to humanity? This suffering seems to conflicts with the images of a perfect God. It is important for Christian to acknowledged that God did not cause evil and that he is still the same loving God. To understand why God, allow evil and suffering among humanity, we must inspect the theodicy ( the doctrine that will explain the suffering happening in the world) or the problem of evil. It is important to be able to understand and define the problems of evil. Second, we will reflect upon the characteristic of the Lord and his power, on his ability to prevent evil. Lastly, I will also share my position on this particular theological problem.

No doubt there is horrific evil that exists within the world. Acts of violence, greed, and corruption describe moral evil that humanity commits while innocents suffer as well as the existence of natural evil such as catastrophic disasters and disease that plague mankind as well. All the while, a divine sovereign God who brought forth life governs over his flock of children that suffer as a result of these evils. The traditional theists believe God is all-knowing or omniscient, all-powerful or omnipotent, and altruistic, although evil and human suffering still exists. This problem of evil directly correlates to God’s attribute of knowledge, where God knows humanity’s available choices given a set of circumstances or counter set of circumstances or what is known as Molinism or middle knowledge (Peterson, et al., Reason and Religious Belief, p. 164). God’s middle knowledge does seem to have limits, considering humanity can freely make their own decisions given a set of circumstances of which God influences, but does not command. Because humanity’s free will decisions are unknown to God, as he creates the path but does not control his or her decisions, there is an escape from the problem of evil as traditional theists perceive God as all-knowing and yet permitting great suffering.

It is evil which is at the heart of the criticism here. It is incompatible to have God who is said to be all powerful (omnipotent), all loving (omnibenevolent) and have a presence of evil in the world. The choice is to deny that God is all powerful or to say that there is no such thing as evil or to cast doubt on his omnibenevolence.

If we were to be controlled by a force beyond our control, like God, then we would be perfectly good beings who would always choose the good decision over the evil one. Some of the evil in this world is said to be caused by humans and the choices they make. In other words, it is implemented that we live in a world where our actions aren’t constrained by any limiting factor, meaning we have the freewill to choose to act on our own moral values and choose