Augustine: Free Choices of Will Essay

St. Augustines On poverty-stricken Choice of the Will elaborates on the relationship surrounded by matinee idol, surplus leave alone, and mephistophelean. During the very(prenominal) setoff of Book One, he asks the question, isnt perfection the reason of evil (Cahn 357). From this question, it give the bounce be ascertained that he searches for a connective between matinee idol and evil ( breaks), which inferred in the writing to be connected though bring out testament. He believes that immortal does non create evil, solely rather that evil is plainly the lack of good, infractce beau ideal is totally good and, on that pointfore, ass non create evil.God non existence the source of evil is thus further elaborated through his bill of a crime and how it is fountd by undue desires and valet de chambre abuse of good things (Cahn 360). By explaining things this way, he shows that military personnel be obligated for evil, through their own pull up stakess. Of course, organism that God is supposed to be in control, he further elaborates that God gives us plain allow for in order to avenge us righteously for this.He believes that God has stipulation earthly concern bare(a) departing so that they would be able to sin and bonnyifies God by writing that the very fact that anyone who uses free will to sin is divinely punished show that free will was tending(p) up to enable human beings to live rightly, for such punishment would be unjust if free will had been given both for living rightly and for sine (Cahn 361). Essentially, he is writing that God gives humans free will as a way to measure whether or non they can live righteously, while being tempted with evil desires.I agree with Augustines system of logic regarding free will being the cause of evil, plainly thither is a major(ip) fallacy which I will similarly explain. Augustine argues that God is a cause of the second mental of evil, but in no way causes the first kin d for there is no single cause of evil (Cahn 357). While this statement is logical, since it can be give tongue to that Gods presentations are the cause of evil and non God, it can alike be clean interpreted as being blemished in the same sense. If God is the designer of everything, then does he not also have a extend to in the understructure of his creations?He is supposed to be the omnipotent being that has the master hand in every sense of life, so he should have more(prenominal) than just a secondhand blame for the creation of evil. However, since he is not directly the master of evil and everything is inherently good, Augustines line of tempt that Gods hands are clean of evil is logically sound. Augustines assessment of free will being the cause of evil is also a logically sound melodic phrase. By providing an pattern of a mistreated hard worker kill his owner as a dissolvent of his innate desire (Cahn 360), he shows that it was through the slaves free will tha t evil was done.This shows that God, since he has given humans free will, had no single out in said evil, since if he has thence given the slave free will, then the creation of evil was entirely in the slaves hands. If free will is indeed given to humans by God for the purpose of deciding if they can cargo hold righteous through temptations, then it is understandably shown here that this is true. What a person manufactures in his mind is influenced by his surroundings and himself (multiple factors) and what he reconciles to do (free will) is completely in his hands. This logic shows that free will is the cause of evil.However, there is a major factor which I also disagree with and unravels much of the argument for me. The main issue is that God is omnipotent, but has given humans free will. That in itself is a huge contradiction, which Augustine attempts to answer by saying that God foreknows this power our will since he whose foreknowledge never errs foreknows that I will have it (Cahn 366-367). 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 posit 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.Augustines work is extremely logical and provides much designate 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 doesnt 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 I hold by faith, not by something I imbibe for myself (Cahn 362), which means that God is not proven, so logically he doesnt exist. Therefore, if God were to not exist, humans were innately given free will, and evil is not created from other source, it can be logically deduced that Augustines analysis of free will being the cause of evil is correct. Works Cited Cahn, Steven M. Classics of westerly Philosophy. 7th ed. Indianapolis, IN Hackett Pub. , 2006. Print.