Object projection and visualization techniques

Evil

The free will defense suggests that God permits, but does not cause evil. Therefore, it is possible to live in a universe in which good and evil continually coexist. Human beings are blessed with the ability to make a choice that can further the objectives of God and good, or to promote the interests of evil. Although this view is logically coherent, there are clear objections to it.

One objection is that God has nothing at all to do with evil, and human beings, made in God's image, likewise have nothing to do with evil. Free will is therefore irrelevant and in fact negated. There is no such thing as free will, according to this point-of-view. All human beings have is a fate that has been pre-determined by God. Using this objection, it is easy to see how the human being is portrayed as a passive recipient of life rather than an active participator. Yet this view also changes the nature of God, too. God in this worldview is passive, and fully neutral. This is not a God interested in binaries of Good and evil. God only sits back and watches creation unfold like a drama that has no ultimate moral meaning. Concurrent with this objection to the notion that evil is the result of human free will is that that evil exists independently of the human being. Evil comes from external forces, like Satan, and the human being is powerless to do anything about it.

A second objection to the free will defense is rooted in atheism. If there is no God, according to the atheist, then there is also no Good or Evil. These are artificial categories constructed by the human mind. The human mind perceives all uncomfortable and painful situations as "evil," but this is just a classification system and is not sophisticated from an existential standpoint. It is better to view the world according to a Buddhist framework, which suggests that suffering has no "evil" component to it at all. Like the atheist, the Buddhist does not believe in a creator God who has dominion over the world. The world is created, destroyed, and maintained by the free will of human beings but there is still no such thing as absolute good or evil.

According to Speaks, there are several other objections to the theodicy perspective that highlights free will. One of those objections is that evil actually does disprove the existence of God. This perspective does not necessarily account for the problem or cause of evil; it simply argues an atheist case. From this point-of-view, it is free will and only free will that causes evil. Free will, and human choice, are the sources of evil because human beings are capable of committing acts that lead to great harm and destruction. From this perspective, the human being is like any other part of nature or an animal, which has no "evil" intention when it kills another animal to eat. It simply does what it needs to do to survive.