(November 1, 2022 at 10:23 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(November 1, 2022 at 8:55 am)Helios Wrote: The idea to have free will there must be a choice of evil is absurd. There is no reason being couldn't have a choice but could only conceive of doing good acts and be incapable of conceiving of doing evil ones. So the idea of evil is necessary or that it somehow gives Christianity an out on the problem of evil is simply a pipe dream. As is the absurdity that it's not a contradiction for a good god to allow evil to exist.
If there can be only one perfect being, in the Scholastic sense, then by necessity all other being would be imperfect and subject to privation of some good. That is not absurd. It is supremely sensible. Also, within the Scholastic tradition, which underpins Catholic dogma, freewill seems to be defined more in terms of an individual's desire and ability to manifest good in their lives when presented with the opportunity and not so much about isolated decisions.
Free will means that "it could have been otherwise", hence, we can impute moral responsibility to others based upon their choices, or, so the argument goes.
The scientific evidence is that we "choose" certain actions prior to even be conscious of our "choices", which is not at all "supremely sensible".
