Augustine Free Choices of Will - 1004 Words

Free Will St. Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will elaborates on the relationship between God, free will, and evil. During the very beginning of Book One, he asks the question, â€Å"isn’t God the cause of evil† (Cahn 357). From this question, it can be ascertained that he searches for a connection between God and evil (sins), which inferred in the writing to be connected though free will. He believes that God does not create evil, but rather that evil is simply the lack of good, since God is completely good and, therefore, cannot create evil. God not being the source of evil is then further elaborated through his explanation of a crime and how it is caused by inordinate desires and human abuse of good things (Cahn 360). By explaining†¦show more content†¦This sounds like he is simply speaking in circles about the subject. He tries to say that God knows about the future, but he knows about our free will, which will give us the power to decide things, but in the end is also foreknown by God. This is where I start to defer from his beliefs, since I believe that free will is the cause of evil, but that God should be taken out of the equation. While it can argued that God only knows of all the possibilities and not what will directly happen, which would make it so that he is providing free will and is part of a triangle relation between himself, free will, and evil, it is simply much more logical to believe that if there is a God, then there is no free will, and if that is such, God is the originator of evil. Augustine’s work is extremely logical and provides much evidence proving that free will is the cause of evil. He explains very clearly that evil is a result of human desire and their free will to do what they want. The most major flaw in his argument is that there is an omnipotent being that controls everything, yet doesn’t control everything, which would unravel his entire argument, resulting in evil being created by said being. Thus, the message that God exists would actually be detrimental to the argument that free will is the cause of evil. However, Augustine writes that â€Å"I hold by faith, not by something I see for myself† (Cahn 362), which means that God is not proven, so logically he doesn’t exist. Therefore, ifShow MoreRelated Saint Augustines Deduction that Free Will is a Good Gift from God940 Words   |  4 PagesSaint Augustines Deduction that Free Will is a Good Gift from God Before the central theme of this essay is analytically summarized, it is important to note a few propositions already established in the conversations between Saint Augustine and Evodius. 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