I have absolute faith that if people have a choice between good and evil, right or wrong, they will always make the right choice.
Mary, that's demonstrably false. It's accurate to say that people have the inherent ability to choose between right and wrong. That's another way of saying that you believe in free will and you also believe that people have an inherent ability to know the difference between right and wrong.
But if people always make the correct choice, how can that be? How can there be murder, rape, robbery, theft, fraud, adultery, child abuse, arson and a myriad of other woes inflicted by one human being on another?
Surely you are not arguing that the people who commit wrong acts do so because they have no choice?
I am starting to wonder whether you're a Presbyterian.
Yesterday, I was reading an essay by the old time preacher Jonathan Edwards, very nicely reasoned and argued explanation as to why free will is impossible. Lucky for me, I recently took a short course on evil taught by a Jesuit from Catholic U., so could at least spot the flaws in his reasoning.
The various positions on free will and agency are, to me, the most important distinctions forming the basis of our various day-to-day philosophies.
I think liberals believe that people can't help themselves, and conservatives believe that they can. By which we all mean healthy strong people past the age of reason. |
