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    An appeal to free will provides no answer to an argument ... — Carmelics
    Home/Problem of Evil
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    An appeal to free will provides no answer to an argument from evil that focuses upon natural evils.

    Problem of Evil
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Natural evils like tsunamis and cancer operate through deterministic physical laws entirely independent of any agent's choice or intention.
      ?

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    • 2.A free will defense requires a causal chain linking the evil to a free choice, but no such chain exists between tectonic plate movement and human volition.
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    • 3.Alvin Plantinga's own free will defense explicitly limits its scope to moral evil, conceding that natural evil requires separate theodical resources like the demon hypothesis.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.If free will were sufficient to explain natural evil, God could have created a world with free creatures but without earthquakes, viruses, or predation, since these require no free choices.
      ?

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    • 2.The logical independence of natural processes from free will entails that even a world of perfectly virtuous agents would still generate natural evil under current physical laws.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Many evils are caused by natural processes, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, other weather conditions, and a wide variety of diseases.
      ?

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    • 2.Such evils do not appear to result from morally wrong actions.
      ?

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    • 3.If natural evils do not result from morally wrong actions, then free will cannot explain their existence.
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    Problem of Evil

    Related

    A free will defense requires a causal chain linking the evil to a free choice, b...Alvin Plantinga's own free will defense explicitly limits its scope to moral evi...If free will were sufficient to explain natural evil, God could have created a w...If natural evils do not result from morally wrong actions, then free will cannot...
    +4 moreShow less
    Many evils are caused by natural processes, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, oth...Natural evils like tsunamis and cancer operate through deterministic physical la...Such evils do not appear to result from morally wrong actions.The logical independence of natural processes from free will entails that even a...

    Similar

    If natural evils do not result from morally wrong actions, then free w...86%An appeal to libertarian free will is problematic.77%Sometimes the appeal is to the mere existence of any evil whatever.77%The argument based on libertarian free will is not immune from challen...76%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: evil
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    Thirdly, many evils are caused by natural processes, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and other weather conditions, and by a wide variety of diseases. Such evils certainly do not appear to result from morally wrong actions. If that is right, then an appeal to free will provides no answer to an argument from evil that focuses upon such evils.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit