Freewill And The Existence Of Evil In Philosophy

The Interconnection of Freewill and the Existence of Evil

Discuss about the Free Will God And Evil.

The question of freewill and the existence of the open thinking has always plagued philosophers since time immemorial. The idea of evil is one of the important tenets of the philosophical thinking. The idea of good and evil in the and the existence of god is intertwined in the philosophy of Mackie who chooses to explore the different aspects of the psyche of the mankind in an attempt to understand the different situations of the existence of evil in the society. In short the argument that Mackie puts forward is: Even the least of Evil cannot exist in the presence of an omnipresent god who is good.

The simple solution that Mackie puts forward is that good and evil exist as the comparison of each other and subjective perspectives and cannot exist in isolation.  If there is no evil one cannot decide that an action is good or not as there is no platform of comparison. The freewill in the human kind is one of the reasons of the existence of the evil in the world. The freewill to choose between the good and the evil blurs the line between the different ideals that may arise in the favors of an omnipresent good as Mackie argues that if there is evil why not god makes the people always choose the good which will be a better choice (Mackie, 1974). This very choice or freedom of choosing in the form of freewill puts a very strong fallacy in the ideology that if freewill allows a person to choose something evil how good can it be considered and why is it even a choice which questions the existence of God. The existence of evil raises a question on the omniscience of god where Mackie argues that if god knew that the people be choosing evil than why is it so that god does not have a control over the choices.

The problem in the concept of the omniscience and the omnipresence of god in the philosophy of Mackie is the fact that God in his true form is omniscient omnipresent and the existence of evil. There are number of different solutions that exist to explain the logical fallacy that exist in the statement that is forwarded. In this context it is to be considered that the presence of evil as the counterpart of evil to maintain a balance and demarcate a bifurcation between the two by the will of an omnipresent god. On the other hand there exists a completely different explanation of evil as the evil that exists is actually not evil but is perceived as evil by the people. The term of evil has also been defined as the temporary divergence of good which helps in explaining the omniscience and the omnipresence of god in the social context. It has also been argued that the evil existence by the will of god to enhance the beauty of the good in the minds of the people (Mackie, 1955). The presence of flaws to enhance the beauty of a thing is seen as one of the important aspects of the theory of existence of evil.

Mackie's Argument and its Implications

 “ God is omniscient, omnipotent, and morally perfect; God has created the world; all evil in the world is [the result of free actions by created creatures]; and there is no possible world God could have created that contains a better balance of [moral good and evil]”

God is omniscient and omnipresent in the world and it is therefore poetic that that he created the human with freewill as their strongest forte. The evil on the other hand is the creation of the man as use of the freewill. God being morally just cannot be biased to a single ideology in the creation and the freewill will have no importance as long as the choices to choose from does not exist in the environment. It is also pointed out by Platinga that the existence of evil in the world is the proof of the existence of freewill and the rejection of all the evil from the world will be curbing the freewill that is presented to the people in the society (Platinga, 1999). The freewill and the existence of it is justified by the existence of evil in the world as it is said by Platinga. The curbing of the freewill will only lead to the overall ideological fallacy where the existence of God can affect the choice of man. God being Omniscient can know what is there to know and what is happening in the present. If he knows what the future choice of the person will be and bases the ideologies on it then the whole concept of free will be flawed.

“If there is no logical impossibility in a man’s freely choosing the good on one, or on several occasions, then there cannot be a logical impossibility in his freely choosing the good on every occasion”

In the statement he simply states that that if the person can choose good on  one occasion then they may as well choose the choice that is good on multiple occasions. Its is therefore one of the strongest fallacies in religion that the freewill which allows a person to make choices or gives them the freedom of identity may be subject to infinite fallacies like in the above statement. It explains if a person always chooses to be good then how is it possible that the person may not make any mistake then they cannot be said to be exercising their freewill. The freewill and the choice is focused on the making of the choice of evil or the wrong decisions to prove their existence in the human life puts them in a state of another indeterminacy (Mackie, 1965). The choice of evils existence for the presence of a complete freewill is one of the major evidence of moral goodness of God. It is not possible for freewill to exist without the choice of contrast and the existence of evil was therefore a necessity for the existence of freewill in man. The freewill does not limit itself between the shades of black and white in the form of good and evil in the society as the person with freewill also has the choice of choosing things in bits to balance the choices in the society. One of the major issue in this case is that the freewill and the choices has to focus on a number of different factors for the overall understanding of the choices.

Different Explanations for the Existence of Evil

From the group discussion it can be argued that the existence of god and free will is independent of each other and one does not need to prove the existence of each other. The existence of free will is one of the main reasons of the existence of Evil in the society as the existence of free will needs to contrasting ideologies to choose from and good and evil are those. Is there is no option of choice then there is no need of Evil in the society and God being Omniscient and omnipresent offers free will to the people by giving them this choice in the presence of both the ideologies. The knowledge of good and evil and omniscience in god is challenged in the philosophies but god is considered to be morally good and Omniscient so he can also see that the free will cannot exist without being given a choice and there is a probability that people may choose either and this very freedom of choice is their free will.

The existence of God cannot be challenged by the statement of existence of Evil and while giving one of the most important choices to man god had to create Evil as a secondary choice of good otherwise the existence of free will would have been a myth. The overall existence of reason in the society is there because of the existence of Evil. It can also be said that even itself is a result of the free will in the society as the people choose to diverge from the given path if they had the choice and therefore created Evil on their own. The good and evil are basically subjective and cannot be charged therefore she will depend from person to person. The choice exist in different places based on individual choices depending on the thoughts of person to person. Good and evil are also very subjective a good thing considered good at one placement be considered even at another. Therefore free will is just a choice to choose good and evil on the other hand are subjective effect is dependent on the situation.

References

Mackie, J. L. (1955). Evil and omnipotence. Mind, 64(254), 200-212.

Mackie, J. L. (1974). The cement of the universe: A study of causation. Oxford University Press.
Mackie, J. L. (1965). Causes and conditions. American philosophical quarterly, 2(4), 245-264.
Platinga, A. (1999). An evolutionary argument against naturalism. Disputatio philosophica: International journal on philosophy and religion, 1(1), 50-69.