Free Will Defense Summary

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Introduction
The logical problem of evil by J. L. Mackie seeked to show a logical contradiction between the existence of a good omnipotent God that traditional theists propose, and the existence of evil. In his Free Will Defense, (henceforth FWD) Alvin Plantinga responds by arguing that agents with significant freedom are more valuable than those without, but that God cannot determine that such agents cannot choose wrong. Hence, it is possible that God exists but creates agents with significant freedom who freely do wrong, resulting in moral evils on earth.
However, one can object to the FWD by claiming that God can create agents with libertarian freedom who cannot choose wrong freely, instead of significantly free agents who could choose wrong. This is because traditional theists believe that both agents who make it to heaven and God have libertarian freedom yet cannot choose wrong freely. Second, they believe God, who is morally perfect, has libertarian freedom but cannot choose wrong freely. In this paper, I will argue that even if both beliefs are true, God cannot directly create agents with libertarian …show more content…
LF: An agent has libertarian freedom for a choice if he is both internally and externally free, and his choices are neither remotely nor proximately determined.
Lastly is Plantinga’s significant freedom (henceforth SF).
SF: An agent has significant freedom for a choice if he has LF for that choice, and if it would be wrong to make the choice or vice

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