plantinga free will defence Flashcards
basics
doesn’t claim what gods reason for the evil might be but what it could possibly be
demonstrates there is no inconsistency in believing in an omnipotent omniscient benevolent god and believing that god created a world with immense pain and suffering in it.
people are free- the freedom that is relevant to his argument is the freedom to act: either to carry out an action or to refrain from carrying out an action.
plantinga rejects determinism regarding human actions- no prior conditions and no causal laws.
what is their aim?
free will defender will succeed in their defence if they can show that it is not within god’s power to create a universe with moral good without that universe also containing moral evil.
how do they do this?
they reject the idea prompted by Leibniz that god can create any possible world.
plantinga questions this as eg god could not create a world in which humans weren’t created by god
example- curly
imagine a person who has a corrupt nature such that in every possible world that god could create he will always choose to do at least one evil action.
this would not be possible for god even an infinitely powerful and loving one to create a world in which curly is free yet always does good actions.
plantinga believes he succeeds with this example.
god doesn’t have the power of creating a world with moral good in it without that world also containing moral evil.
summary standard form
1 world with creatures who are free is more valuable than a world containing no free creatures at all
2 god can create free creatures but he can’t without removing their freedom causing them to do what is morally right
3 therefore god created a world with free creatures capable of doing both what is morally right and what is morally evil
furthermore this defences the belief that god is all powerful and wholly good
god’s goodness is what led him to create a world with creatures who had freedom rather than creatures who were robots and god omnipotence gave him the power to actually create such a world. god doesn’t prevent evil doesn’t mean he lacks any quality as he could only prevent evil by removing our capacity for free choice and hence removing the possibility of moral good.
