RE: Plantinga's "Free Will" defense contradicts Christianity
February 7, 2020 at 7:33 am
(This post was last modified: February 7, 2020 at 7:44 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Platinga focused more on moral evil. Not the bad things that happen as a consequence of earthquakes and the like, but the bad things that happen as a consequence of human decisions. So, for example, because I choose to rape and pillage - some toddler somewhere suffers. It's moot point to say that this is no reason for a toddler to be bad - toddlers are not thought to be competent moral actors in the first place.
More fundamentally, the problem for the omni god are those same things we take to be instructive with regards to it's scheme to punish sin. If sin should be punished, then gods sins should be punished. Even more bluntly, the god envisioned by christians should not be guilty of sin at all..and yet.....
To this end, Platinga imagines that god simply can't make a better world, discharging him of any responsibility for the state of this one. He did his best. There can be no world in which moral actors are meaningfully free, in which moral evil doesn't exist. This assaults our observations of the world, and even our own actions. The police, for example, don't do much to prevent a freely willed decision to murder...-but they do fancy themselves as at least trying to prevent the actual murder - the moral evil that follows from this decision. God, as envisioned by Platinga, is somehow less competent than a police officer. Somehow not capable of doing even the simplest things that come to mind when we consider how this world might be improved (whether the subject is natural or moral evil).
This is why it's referred to as a successful defense. If a person insists that god is incapable of changing x, y, and z, then it's no fault of gods that he doesn't do something about x y and z. He might want to, because omni-benevolent and all that jazz....he might see all of this and think "fuuuuuuuuck" - but he can't. It's not within his ability.
More fundamentally, the problem for the omni god are those same things we take to be instructive with regards to it's scheme to punish sin. If sin should be punished, then gods sins should be punished. Even more bluntly, the god envisioned by christians should not be guilty of sin at all..and yet.....
To this end, Platinga imagines that god simply can't make a better world, discharging him of any responsibility for the state of this one. He did his best. There can be no world in which moral actors are meaningfully free, in which moral evil doesn't exist. This assaults our observations of the world, and even our own actions. The police, for example, don't do much to prevent a freely willed decision to murder...-but they do fancy themselves as at least trying to prevent the actual murder - the moral evil that follows from this decision. God, as envisioned by Platinga, is somehow less competent than a police officer. Somehow not capable of doing even the simplest things that come to mind when we consider how this world might be improved (whether the subject is natural or moral evil).
This is why it's referred to as a successful defense. If a person insists that god is incapable of changing x, y, and z, then it's no fault of gods that he doesn't do something about x y and z. He might want to, because omni-benevolent and all that jazz....he might see all of this and think "fuuuuuuuuck" - but he can't. It's not within his ability.
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