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

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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?