Wednesday, March 20, 2013
God and Free Will
Is it possible to have free will and yet to choose the same thing in every possible world? It would seem that if an entity were to make the same choice freely, in every possible world, such a choice would be necessary. And yet, one of the apparent requirements of free will is that it be possible for the agent in question to choose otherwise. This is quite a quandery.
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I think it is possible. If God is omniscient he would know what is the best possible choice is at any given time. Since we are talking about possible worlds, then the best possible choice must be on the cards in every possible world. God being omnipotent can then choose that best possible choice in every possible world, every single time.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there is a best possible world though. As Alvin Plantinga points out, there are an infinite number of possible worlds each one better than another. If this is the case, it would be logically impossible to create “the best possible world”. If this is the case, God has an infinite number of very good worlds to choose from, and I think he would have free will. I was speaking more toward the issue of God having free will in the area of ethics. Traditional theism grounds ethical principles in the character of God. Because the character of God is necessary, or the same in all possible worlds, we have a sufficient ontological grounding for objective moral values. However, I wonder if this allows for God having the freedom to choose to do good, which theists also tend to view as being better than just doing good by itself.
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