Iranaean free will defence
- Created by: Juliet06
- Created on: 16-11-16 21:15
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- Iranaean free will defence
- The argument
- God's aim when He created the world was to make humans flawless, in His likeness
- Genuine human perfection cannot be ready-made, but must develop through free choice
- Since God had to give us free choice, He had to give us the potential to disobey Him
- If humans were ready-perfected, and if God policed His world continually, there would be no free will
- The natural order had to be designed with the possibility of causing harm, humans had to be imperfect, and God had to stand back from his creation in order to maintain free will
- Humans used their freedom to disobey God, causing suffering
- God cannot compromise our freedom by removing evil
- Eventually evil and suffering will be overcome and everyone will develop into God's likeness, living in glory in Heaven. This justifies temporary evil
- Key points
- God is partly responsible for evil
- He created humans imperfect and made it their responsibility to develop
- 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' Genesis 1v26- evil was essential so we could develop into God's likeness
- To become like God we have to do this willingly, absolute goodness could not be God given, we had to choose it and this choice had to involve the possibility of doing wrong
- Some choose to do evil but he argues- 'How if we had no knowledge of the contrary, could we have instruction in that which is good?'
- If God removes evil then he will remove our humanity
- Everyone will eventually become 'like' God and exist with God in heaven
- Suffering and evil would help human beings grow closer to God- suffering and evil, eventually, will be overcome
- Added information
- Theodicy= a defence of God against the existence of evil
- Purpose of the world is to develop the morality of human beings
- Only by choosing to do the right thing could people achieve moral perfection (has to be wrong to pick the right option)
- The argument
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