It is a mistake when Christian theologians explain evil in terms of God's gift of free will.
Because free will is not a cause of evil.
I mean: free will is not even potentially a cause of evil.
Evil comes from evil: evil acts come from an evil nature.
A good Man would be free, but would do no evil.
Proof?
Jesus Christ: He was free and did not evil.
If Men also had good natures, Men would freely do only good.
Therefore the cause of evil is the nature of things; the cause of evil in Men is the evil nature of Men.
If, therefore, you believe that God created everything from nothing (ex nihilo) - including Men - then this entails that God must have created the nature of Men capable of evil.
(This has nothing to do with free will. Free will does not come into it.)
But since God really-is wholly good, and also Men obviously do evil - then it follows that God did Not create Men from nothing.
The evil that is in Mens' nature is not of God.
Thus there is something within Men that is not of God.
Conclusion: Men are not wholly created by God.
(And the notion that God created everything from nothing is refuted.)
2 comments:
Solid! (And very helpful!)
"A good Man would be free, but would do no evil. Proof? Jesus Christ: He was free and did not evil."
This lines up well with what I consider to be Berdyaev's most insightful observation, "Jesus was a free man, the freest of the sons of men."
Authentic freedom then is freedom from evil. Or, more postively, alignment with God in the sense of being free to good and only good (which begs the question of why an omni-God creating from ex nihilo would not have just created in that way).
This is something I've been trying to communicate for years, yet it keeps getting countered by the old "free will doctrine" argument that posits that freedom can only be free if it includes the choice for evil, and that God had to create in that way because to do otherwise would render men mindless automatons or robot slaves. Remove that choice for evil and man becomes an automaton; a robot. An absurd argument. Was Jesus an automaton then? Nothing more than a robot for good?
If free will is a gift from God, then it is a fatal gift.
God creates from beings who are not wholly good. As you point out, this not wholly good part comes not from God but is inherent in beings, to various degrees, and pre-exists Creation.
This entails that men are not authentically free in the way Jesus was authentically free (free in the sense of being aligned with God). Yet is also suggests that men have the capacity to be free, if not in mortal life, then in heaven provided they are able to release the evil aspects of their natures.
I've argued that the free will doctrine is actually an enslaving force. Choosing evil over good is not a sign that one is exercising one's freedom. On the contrary, it is an outright rejection of freedom.
Evil does arise from evil; that is, the evil nature within men. However, the expression of this evil through choice is not and cannot be considered freedom. In this sense, freedom cannot even be considered a vehicle for evil for the simple reason that the appearance of or inclination toward evil negates freedom.
@Frank - Yes, its a matter of trying to generate a clear and graspable explanation.
Here I am (sort of) assuming that free will/ agency and evil are "orthogonal" -, independent, have no necessary relationship - can be understood separately.
Ultimately, of course, it is seldom valid to separate things - and free will and goodness are indeed related in their origin (as attributes of beings).
But I think that the example of Jesus as free and/yet without evil/ sin, might be the kind of refutation that might (ought to!) carry weight with Christians - and maybe shake an ingrained false habit of thinking.
The deep problem is (as you have often discussed) that people see free will/ agency as a matter of choices - when it is in truth a matter of a Being thinking from the real-divine self, in loving harmony with God's creation.
But that understanding is blocked by the usual metaphysical assumptions; and these assumptions are typically either unconscious, or regarded as necessary and entailed.
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