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Alvin Plantinga's free-will defense is a logical argument developed by the American analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga and published in its final version in his 1977 book God, Freedom, and Evil. [1] Plantinga's argument is a defense against the logical problem of evil as formulated by the philosopher J. L. Mackie beginning in 1955.
The problem of evil is generally formulated in two forms: the logical problem of evil and the evidential problem of evil. The logical form of the argument tries to show a logical impossibility in the coexistence of a god and evil, [2] [9] while the evidential form tries to show that given the evil in the world, it is improbable that there is an ...
A logical formulation of this argument might go as follows: [1] God knows choice "C" that a human would claim to "make freely". It is now necessary that C. If it is now necessary that C, then C cannot be otherwise (this is the definition of “necessary”). That is, there are no actual "possibilities" due to predestination.
The problem of free will has been identified in ancient Greek philosophical literature. The notion of compatibilist free will has been attributed to both Aristotle (4th century BCE) and Epictetus (1st century CE): "it was the fact that nothing hindered us from doing or choosing something that made us have control over them".
Religious responses to the problem of evil are concerned with reconciling the existence of evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God. [1] [2] The problem of evil is acute for monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism whose religion is based on such a God.
352-355 The real conception of freedom is the possibility of good and evil. 356-357 Critique of the abstract conception of God; Naturphilosophie. 357-358 Ground of God and light. 359-366 Critique of immanence. 366-373 Conception of evil according to Baader. 373-376 Evil is necessary for God's revelation; exegesis of "matter" in Plato.
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Religion is a form of controlling people: [53] one man-machine wants to achieve power over another. Even the term "freedom," very often used by theologians, in its positive sense actually means "power." [5] Religion is by no means more "fulfilling the will of God" than anything else. As God is primary and almighty, his will is by definition ...