Transcript Swinburne and Free Will
Swinburne and Free Will
A Quick Recap
So far we have looked at 3 Free Will Defences: Alvin Plantinga – humans who freely choose good are better than those who have no choice at all. A greater good can come from the evil God permits Augustine – God created a perfect world, evil was introduced by the choices made by humans who were given free will. Free will led to the original sin of Adam and Eve Irenaeus – Free will is necessary if we are going to improve ourselves and the world. Evil is an unfortunate side effect of this free will
Hick and Swinburne
Hick and Swinburne both point out that God does wish not to create a cosy ‘toy world’ for his human ‘pets’ to live in So it’s a mistake to look at the world and wonder why it isn’t more pleasant for humans A much greater good than pleasure is the relationship humans can have with God, and this can only be a genuine relationship if we have free will
Richard Swinburne
Swinburne has supported the free will defence and has helped to counter some of the criticisms that are often raised against it One such criticism asks why God needs to allow the scale of suffering witnessed in the Holocaust. Swinburne answers: “The less he allows men to bring about large scale horrors, the less freedom and responsibility. We are asking that God should make a toy world, a world where things matter but not very much; where we can choose and our choices make a small difference but the real choices remain God’s. For he would simply not allow us the choice of real harm. He would be like an over-protective parent who will not let his child out of his sight for a moment.”
Thoughts
Do you think this is a good assessment?
So Swinburne is saying a God who intervened to prevent the large scale horrors would compromise the gift of freedom and remove human responsibility, thus preventing genuine human development Swinburne took the example of death and argued that despite the suffering it causes death is essential to the Free Will Defence This is because death means life and the chances that each life contains are limited. This is essential because only in a limited lifespan
What Do You Think?
What positives are there for the free will defence?
What criticisms can you think of for the free will defence?