The Free Will Theodicy

List pages on the Problem of Evil on this site by Vexen

This page is an introduction to the free will theodicy and a summary of some varied reasons why this theodicy does not work.

1. The Problem of Evil:

"If God is all-powerful and all-good, it would have created a universe with no suffering and no evil. But, evil and suffering exist. Therefore God does not exist, is not all-powerful or is not benevolent. Attempts to justify the existence of evil are called theodicies. There have been no fully working theodicies created to date, even popular ones such as the free will theodicy were rejected thousands of years ago for reasons that still stand today. It seems that if there is a god, it is not the all-good moral being that classical religions would have us believe."

"Introduction to Theodicy" by Vexen, 2000 Jan

Darren Oldridge, 2000

The most common theodicy is the free will theodicy. This is that God created evil so that we could then choose between good and evil, and make moral choices. If all choices result in good, there would be no moral choices. The free will theodicy holds that if love is acceptable, it must be chosen over hate (or not-love), and therefore evil and suffering result when we make morally poor choices. However this classical theodicy does not hold up, for many reasons. Some prominent historical Christian theologians who have rejected the free will theodicy include St Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin.₁

2. Refutations
View arguments in full by clicking on the links. They are summarized in the conclusion below.

• Free Will does not require the existence of Evil or suffering

• Free Will in Heaven and Evil

• A moral god would not allow earthquakes and natural evils to exist

Summary:
The free will justification for evil does not work. Free will does not require the existence of evil or suffering. Heaven is a place where there is free will, and no suffering. There is a lot of suffering and evil that are not the result of free will, such as natural disasters, so free will could not actually account for all suffering, only some of it. Also, the free will of one person can cause suffering for another innocent person, God should not allow the moral choices of one being affect other beings as this goes against moral accountability.

3. Conclusions

• God does not exist
  or
• God is not benevolent, is not moral
  or
• God is not all-powerful (this probably implies rather that God does not exist)