Hailey Canada
Dr. Case
PHIL220
05 November 2018
Term Paper
Moral Evil and God’s Existence
In St Augustine’s On Free Choice of The Will, Augustine claims that God and moral evil can coexist. He argues that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. On the other hand, J. L. Mackie in his “Evil and Omnipotence” argues that if God exists and is good and omnipotent, there should be no such thing as evil. Good and evil are not able to coexist. Augustine proposed that God created humans to have free will with the intent that they would make morally good choices. Moral evil is a result of using free will to make bad decisions. In this paper, I will argue that Augustine successfully proves that free will is the cause of moral evil and that the existence of moral evil does not render God’s existence improbable nor does it make God evil himself. I will also be arguing in agreement with Augustine and Thomas Aquinas against atheist, J. L. Mackie, for the existence of God.
In On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine is addressed with the problem of evil. He argues that God wanted humans to be morally good because moral goodness is the highest kind of goodness. Augustine stated in Book II of On Free Choice of the Will, “If human beings are good things, and they cannot do right unless they so will, they ought to have a free will, without which they cannot do right” (Augustine). Augustine argues that for one to be morally good, they must be able to freely choose to do the right things. Moral goodness requires moral responsibility. Thus, meaning God must have given humans free will to choose between right and wrong in order to make morally good decisions.
Thomas Aquinas stated in Question 83 of his Summa Theologiae, “Man has free-will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain.” (“Question 83”). Here, Aquinas is arguing for the existence of free will. In other words, God must have given humans the freedom to choose, otherwise many actions would be unintelligible and pointless rather than concise and well-thought.
When God created humans, he had two choices. He could either create humans who appear to have free will, but are forced to do the right things, or he could create truly free humans. Augustine claims that if God created humans to have no choice but to do good, there would be no moral goodness. They would only be channels of the goodness that God already has because all their actions and decisions would be controlled by him. Humans would essentially be God’s puppets. Augustine argues that God created humans to be completely free and choose between right and wrong; therefore, reducing the amount of goodness in the world by causing evil.
Aquinas agrees with Augustine in saying that God created humans to be free rather than having to control their every move. He stated in Question 83 of his Summa Theologiae, “Free will is the cause of its own movement, because by his free-will man moves himself to act…God therefore, is the first cause, who moves causes both natural and voluntary. And just as by moving natural causes he does not prevent their acts being natural…” (“Question 83”). In agreement to Augustine, Aquinas claims that God may be the cause of free will. God is the first cause of every voluntary and involuntary act; however, he does not control or prevent the voluntary or involuntary acts. If God controlled will, there would be no freedom and no truly moral goodness. Only man can control his own decisions.
Eleonore Stump, in her book, “Providence and the Problem of Evil,” argues in favor of Thomas Aquinas’ view on God and providence. She states in her writings that God does not prevent humans from doing anything evil because it would destroy the nature he has given them. He wanted humans to be completely free in order to be become the highest good like him. He does not will for moral to occur, nor does he will for it not to occur. Instead, he wills to allow evil to occur when humans have chosen to do evil because if he were to intervene, he would be disrupting the nature of human beings. If God were to intervene and prevent humans from causing such evil, the loss would be much greater than if he were to allow it (Stump).
Augustine argues that God himself is not the creator of moral evil. Though he is the creator of all things in the world, he believes that evil is a result of humans misusing the freedom of choice God has given them. Through goodness, evil exists. It is a corruption of the goodness caused by abuse of free will. Augustine believes that the abuse of free will and the existence of moral evil can be traced back to Adam and Eve’s original sin. Eve was deceived by Satan in disguise and tricked into committing the first sin by eating the forbidden fruit (The). In On Free Choice of the Will, he states, “For there is no single cause of evil; rather, everyone who does evil is the cause of his own evil doing…They would not be punished justly if they had not been performed voluntarily” (Augustine). He argues that rather than there being one cause of evil, such as God, the cause of all evil is from those who voluntarily do bad things.
Aquinas argues in his Summa Theologiae that evil exists through goodness. Every kind of evil has a cause. He claims that evil is the subject of good. If good is destroyed, then evil will become eliminated as well. Although goodness makes evil possible, and God is the creator of all things, he is not the cause or direct creator of evil because evil is a result of a defect in goodness, and God has no defects. (“Question 49”). Aquinas believes that the existence of evil can be explained by free will. In order to have a perfect world like God intended, sin is necessary, and individuals are the cause of that sin.
J. L. Mackie, in his article, “Evil and Omnipotence,” argues against theists and the co-existence of evil and an all good and powerful God. He believes all arguments for God’s existence have been proven to be faulty and that one should not have to be convinced that there is no reason for believing in God. He notes in his article that most religious beliefs lack rational support and that there is an inconsistency in parts of the theological doctrine. In his article, Mackie addresses the problem of evil and describes why it shows that belief in God is completely irrational and lacks irrational support. He states, “God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil still exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false” (J). God is all-powerful and wholly good; therefore, evil should not be able to exist. If God is wholly good, he should want to eliminate as much evil as he can. If he is omnipotent, or all-powerful, he should be able to do anything, specifically eliminating or preventing evil.
Throughout his article, he addresses possible solutions to the problem of evil. The last solution states that evil is necessary for free will. He questions why God would create humans with free will if he knew there was a possibility of them doing evil things. He states that God’s failure to think of this possibility is inconsistent with his omnipotence and omnibenevolence. (“J”). He argues that if man is truly free, even God cannot control them; therefore, God is no longer omnipotent. However, theists would argue that God, though he chooses not to intervene in humans’ free will, does not lack omnipotence. If God is supposedly all powerful and wholly good, there should be no limitations on what he is able to do; however, evil still exists. Because evil still exists and God has all the power and abilities to stop it; however, has not done anything to prevent it, it is plausible that God does not exist.
In Book II of On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine argues for the existence of God. He establishes that humans are alive, can understand, and can perceive. External senses perceive material, inner sense perceives the data received from the external senses, and reason perceives everything. The inner sense is superior to anything that is judged, and reason judges inner sense; therefore, it is the highest and greatest of our faculties. He then claims that though reason is the highest among the hierarchy, there is something that is higher than reason. Augustine establishes that because there must be something higher than reason, it must be God; therefore God does exist.
Aquinas, though his view regarding the existence of God differs from Augustine, provides five arguments to prove the existence of God. The first way is through the argument from motion. Our senses prove that things are in motion. If things are in motion, there must be something that put it into motion. Nothing can move itself; therefore, each thing is moved by something else. He believes that the first mover to put things in motion is understood to be God (“Question”). The second way is through the argument from efficient causes. We can perceive a series of efficient causes of things. Nothing exists before itself; therefore, nothing can be the efficient cause of itself. If the first thing in the series exists, then nothing can exist. Aquinas believes that the first efficient cause is known to be God (“Question”). The third way is through the argument from possibility and necessity. We find things that go in and out of being in nature. Because it is understood to be contingent, it must cease to exist at some time. If all things are contingent, there was a time when nothing existed; therefore, nothing would exist now. There must be a being that does not receive existence from another. Aquinas believes that being must be God (“Question”). The fourth wat is the argument from gradation of being. There is gradation among all things. These things require a maximum or minimum reference. There must be something that causes their being. Aquinas believes that it must be God (“Question”). The last argument is the argument from design. There are things that lack intelligence; however, they are designed to meet their end. Some intelligent being must exist by whom these things are directed to their end. Aquinas claims that this intelligent being is God (“Question”).
Augustine believed that God is the absolute highest among the hierarchy of nature. He also believed that God was the creator of all things and that he wanted to create humans to be morally good. In order to do so, he had to create creatures that were able to decide between the good and the bad. Augustine argued that when people choose to do bad things, moral evil is the result. In conclusion, St. Augustine successfully proves that not only does God exist, but God and evil can coexist.
Works Cited
Augustine, Thomas Williams. On Free Choice of the Will. Indianapolis: Hacket Pub. Co, 1993.
J. L. Mackie. “Evil and Omnipotence.” Mind, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 254. 1995.
Stump, Eleonore. “Providence and the Problem of Evil.” The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas.
Oxford University Press, 2012.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Zondervan, 2009.
“Question 2. The Existence of God.” CATHOLIC LIBRARY: Sublimus Dei (1537),
www.newadvent.org/summa/102.htm.
“Question 49. The Cause of Evil.” NEW ADVENT: Home, newadvent.org/summa/1049.htm.
“Question 83. Free-Will.” NEW ADVENT: Home, newadvent.org/summa/1083.htm.