The Free Will Defense

This is a paper for my grad class examining an article about "The Free Will Defense" by Alvin Plantinga.

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In his article, Alvin Plantinga sets out to address those who would argue that an omnipotent God and evil cannot coexist. He especially addresses Mackie’s paper, "Evil and Omnipotence." I found the first part of Plantinga’s essay challenging and difficult to follow at times, but he discusses the importance of theodicy showing that an all-loving, all-powerful God is not logically inconsistent with the problem of evil. This becomes the foundation upon which the Free Will Defense is built.

Plantinga begins with the premise that an omnipotent God exists and has a good reason for creating a world in which evils exists. The purpose of the Defense is not to find the reason or purpose of any specific evils, but rather to say what might possibly be God’s reason for allowing evil of any type to exist.

One important belief of the Free Will Defense is that there may be a kind of good that God cannot bring about without permitting evil. In addition, a person must be free to make choices with regards to action. True freedom must give a person the ability to perform an action or refrain from it without direct interference. While one may be able to predict what someone will do, a person must have the power to choose their actions.

Plantinga outlines several other requirements as he defines free will. He states that an action is morally significant if it would be wrong to perform the action but right to refrain from it, or visa versa. In addition, someone would be considered significantly free if he is free with respect to a morally significant action. He also distinguishes between moral evil, evil that results from human activity, and natural evil, all other evils.

These thoughts come together in Plantinga’s initial statement of the Free Will Defense, which states, "A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all." One of the foundational beliefs is that in order for us to be capable of moral good we must have the freedom to choose moral evil. In other words, our goodness is only as meaningful as our opportunity for doing evil.

It is quite possible that God could not have created a universe that contained moral good without moral evil being present. While some would argue that God could have created a world where people only made good choices, this would contradict the idea of free will. In a sense, it would negate the value of moral good by eliminating the option of moral evil.

Others might argue that it is possible to do only what is right, even when presented the option to commit evil. However, God, with His wisdom and power, likely created the best possible world that still provided mankind with the opportunity to choose. So in order to create the best possible world, God created a world where there is the existential possibility for evil to exist.

While God could have created any world, the world God creates must be a world in which he exists. It must also be a world in which moral good exists while people have the opportunity to make choices, whether for good or evil.  God could not have created any world he wanted, but only worlds which contain moral good and moral evil. Otherwise, it would not be a world where true freedom exists.

In conclusion, Plantinga argues that God’s power does not allow him to create a world in which free will exists without moral evil. While God is all-powerful, his power cannot contradict what is logically true, that for moral good to exist, moral evil must be an option. Plantinga briefly addresses natural evil at the close of his essay when he discusses transworld depravity and that everyone suffers from that.

God, in his wisdom, created a world where he, the ultimate source of moral good, can exist with his creation, which has the freedom to choose good or evil. This free will makes it possible for a perfect being to coexist with beings who can decide to do what is right or what is wrong. Our freedom neither negates nor reduces God’s power or goodness. It makes it all the more wonderful.