FWD - Strengths and Weaknesses

• FWD explains evil - strengths

  - If we accept the steps of the FWD it's does seem to solve the problem of evil

  - The FWD does not avoid or diminish the idea of evil

  - It acknowledges evil as a consequence of freedom
• FWD explains evil - weaknesses

  - Dostoevsky is unlikely to be satisfied by suggestion that innocents suffer for the benefit of other peoples virtues

  - Evidential problem is not resolved fully
• FW and moral perfection appear to be incompatible - strengths

  - Swinburne and Plantinga have a point. If we are genuinely free then surely we must be able to have real choices

  - God cannot therefore limit our choices
• FW and moral perfection appear to be incompatible - weaknesses


  - JL Mackie argues that if God was omnipotent God could create humans with the ability to always make the right choice
• FWD is consistent with the God of Classical theism - strengths


  - God is benevolent in giving us freedom (Augustine)

  - God is benevolent in allowing for free will (King and the Maiden in Hick)

  - God is omnipotent (2 stage creation in Hick)
• FWD is consistent with the God of Classical theism - weaknesses

  - Hicks 2 stage creation allows for millions of years of tragic evolution

  - Augustine takes the bible literally
• Free will is about choices - strengths

  Hick and King and the Maiden
• Free will is about choices - weaknesses


  - Free will is an illusion because we are programmed by culture, worldviews and neuroscience
• Free will explains natural evil - strengths

  Swinburne natural evil
• Free will explains natural evil - weaknesses

  Why should people suffer for other peoples benefit?