In On Free Choice of the Will, we look at the different views that both Augustine and Evodius have about "why God gave human beings free choice of the will" (29). In this passage they are asking why would God give humans the ability to sin if it is not just? It is believed that God only gives good gifts. Evodius continually tries to question free will and why God gave humans the ability to create evil acts in the world. Augustine then justifies his belief as to why we can also use free will to sin, “but we should not therefore believe that God gave them free will so that they would be able to sin” (30). This is a very interesting point that Evodius does not seem to grasp onto. One who chooses to sin cannot justify his actions by using his God given ability as an excuse; as God only expects good in people and those who choose to do otherwise are punished for their sins. Augustine and Evodius believe that their faith is what gives them their knowledge to believe in these things in God’s existence. So if one chooses to act in an evil manner, it is still their free choice of will?
God is seen as the highest power and it is believed that he would never give humans the right to do wrong. Augustine begins to question Evodius about existence and whether or not God really does exist and why. This is where Evodius explains “there are these three things: existence, life, and understand” (33). If humans contain those characteristics even if they just contain one of those then they are considered to be in existence. Is this really the way to validate that things exist? How are we so sure that God exists? Evodius is certain that “God should not have given us free choice of the will because whoever sins does so by free choice” (64). So therefore, that makes God only a creator of good and not evil?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
“On the Free Choice of will” can be discussed in two different ways, on one hand there is the biblical way of thinking taking Adam and Eve as an example of first sinners. One could even say that God is only able to create good things, because he is “the good in person”. Maybe we could argue that God created humans with weaknesses like sins on purpose. The fact that no human being is perfect, and every person (how good they might be) did sins during his life. If you think back further in Christian history, Eve and Adam got distracted by the snake to taste an apple against God’s will. After they ate the apple Eve needed to gave birth to children and Adam needed to work on a field (to produce food). It was maybe meant by God to be this way. Because of Adams and Eves sin, humans developed to way they are right now.
On the other hand we should take into consideration the existence of a second, “mean” God who is in charge of hell. Some cultures think that both Gods need to exist to explain the bad things happening in a humans life. The existence of more than one God was really common in the ancient Greek times. Suppose such a second evil God would exist, would he then be the holy Gods enemies? Or is the evil God acting because humans are not perfect? Are naturally tempted to sin?
I take Augustine’s position that although God gave us a choice, we can still choose wrong. He poses the argument that God does punish sinners and God asks why the person fails to use their free choice of the will “for the purpose for which I gave it” (30). We have a choice and we can choose to do wrong and such a choice is also supported by the mere fact that we admire God’s justice. The admiration of justice exists because there is justice to be done (31).
I feel we don't truly have a free will because we cannot choose what we perceive only what to do with what we perceive. Either way we are forced to perceive things but it’s supposed to be our choice to accept or reject. We are pretty much doomed from the beginning. So it’s kind of like a case when a murder is holding a gun up to your head and says if you believe in god you will die. You technically have a choice but you don’t because you will die if you say you believe in god.
How can we have free will and the ability to do right when we are not freed from sin?
Post a Comment