FWD weaknesses Flashcards
Evidential Problem: Considering the amount of evil and suffering, is Free Will REALLY worth it?
Is Free Will really worth its price tag? Considering the extent of evil and suffering in the world, it is not clear whether freedom is really worth so much pain. At the point of creation, God must have known the full extent of human evil, so why did he bother to create such a universe?
It is based on the assumption that we have Free Will. This has not been proven.
The Free Will defence relies on a libertarian account of free will. There is continued debate around the assumption that human beings have free will - psychologists and neuroscientists continue to study this question and have no definitive answer. Determinists believe that we do NOT have free will, which would undermine the success of the free will defence.
..Some believe it does not sufficiently explain the existence of Natural Evil
Natural Disasters are not caused by human beings - they cannot be held morally responsible / criminally liable for hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes etc. Plantinga’s explanation (that natural evil is the consequence of Adam & Eve’s actions) requires a literalist reading of Genesis. For many theists, Genesis is seen as being literally / historically true, and so this dependency is a weakness in his argument. It appears the defence cannot account for all types of evil and so is an unsatisfactory defence.
