Evidence · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
Plantinga’s free will defense and Mackie’s concession
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Plantinga argued that if free will is a genuine good, God’s power does not extend to making people freely do only right, since forced goodness is not free. That one possibility breaks the claimed contradiction. Mackie, no friend of theism, granted that the free will defense succeeds against the logical problem, which is why the debate moved to the evidential form.
Sources
The free will defense against the logical problem of evil.
Survey noting the logical problem is widely held to be answered.
Objections & responses
- The free will defense does nothing about natural evil, disease, earthquakes, animal suffering, none of which involves human choice. Isn’t this a narrow win?
It is a narrow win on purpose. The logical problem claimed a flat contradiction, and defeating that needs only one coherent possibility. Natural evil is real and is handled under the evidential problem, where theists appeal to a world of stable law, the effects of the fall, or reasons beyond our sight. The point here is only that the strongest version, the claim that evil disproves God outright, does not hold. The serious conversation is the evidential one.