RE: RE: Interventionism and the Problem of Evil
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RE: Interventionism and the Problem of Evil

RE: Interventionism and the Problem of Evil

I'm not equivocating. I'm trying to demonstrate that you are using arbitrary and vague language to try to find fault with a God you don't seem to believe exists (which, by the way, is itself an example of equivocating... Check your definitions). You seem also to not understand what free will actually means, by the very fact that you're advocating that the allegedly non-existent God place limitations on the free will that He gave us. Let me help you. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines free will as: "the ability to choose how to act; the ability to make choices that are not controlled by fate or God". So for God to place limitations on man's free will would effectively nullify it.

The actual fact of God's existence is a separate issue that must be taken on its own, but assuming that He does for the sake of argument, as we are both doing here, then He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good (these are necessary qualities derived from Aquinas' proof from motion). What you are suggesting here, then, is that you can envision or devise a more perfect arrangement for existence than an infinite mind. This was the entire point of the second part of my original post. An infinite mind is in full knowledge of all causal relationships, and so things that may seem to be "too much" evil or "not enough" good in this world are derived from our imperfect understanding of events. You say that my "defense" is based on limitations on God's power. I haven't said anything of the sort. I'm trying to explain that God made things the way they are for a reason, and that our minuscule understanding of it is no proof that it is therefor a failed system. That part has to do with evils not caused by man's exercise of free will. What you seem concerned with are evils that are committed by man exercising his free will, against other men. This is not a necessary component of the grand design of God, but a consequence of our free choices. And as I stated before in my original post, God gave us this free will so that we would have the ability to genuinely choose the good (and, in so doing, choose Him). If that free will was taken away, a genuine choice toward the good would be impossible. We would simply be robots doing whatever God forced us to do.

I know people don't like to be pinned down to solid positions, because it leaves them vulnerable, but for a productive discussion to take place I need to know where you're coming from. So, do you believe in free will? And I don't mean should people have free will, but do they actually have it? You say you don't have the freedom to choose to be invisible, and that's true; we are constrained in our actions by the laws of nature. But you seem to think you don't actually possess the ability to choose to murder. But other people apparently do. So do you have less free will than some other humans? Or does the thought simply repulse you and so you can't conceive of making that choice?

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