Thoughts On Free Will

I'll be sharing my thoughts on the topic of free-will, especially as it is used in Christian apologetics.

This concept of free-will comes up very often in Apologetics, it is usually brought up in response to the problem of evil/suffering, particularly when it comes moral evils, i.e evils perpetrated by humans. I call it the free-will theodicy.

The argument goes something like this: God created us with free-will, which means the freedom to do anything we want, including both moral and immoral things. So if we choose to harm others, we're simply exercising our free-will and god would be infringing on this free-will if he decided to stop us.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning, I have some thoughts on this.

1. What counts as an infringement on our free-will?

a. If god makes something physically/naturally impossible for us, is that infringing on our free-will?

There are many things we're not free to do by virtue of our biology/nature; we're not free to fly, we're not free to become invisible, we're not free to heal our illnesses at will, we're not free to regrow/reshape our body parts, we're not free to teleport, etc.

It is physically impossible for us to do these things even though some or most of us would love to do them.

So, why are we free to harm and be harmed but not free to teleport?

Doesn't it infringe on our free-will for god to make it impossible for us to fly? If you argue that it doesn't, perhaps because of nature/physics, then god could have made us in such a that we would be physically unable to harm each other even if we wanted to, and this wouldn't require him to violate our free will.

b. God could prevent moral evils without violating our free will, by simply protecting the victim of the attack. For example, if a person is about to be assaulted, god could create a sort of shield around the victim preventing them from getting hurt. In this case, the attacker isn't stopped from attacking, their victim is simply shielded from getting hurt. Does this infringe on the attacker's free-will?

Does this also count as a violation of free-will?

2. Drawing from 1b, If a person assaults another person, the free-will of the victim is being violated (they'll rather not be assaulted) but the attacker is exercising his free-will. So by not stopping the attacker doesn't that mean that god is on their side? That god cares about the free-will of the attacker more than the free-will of the victim? 

Because in the case of say, murder or rape, someone's free-will will be violated either way. If the crime happens, the victim has their free-will violated, but if the crime is prevented from happening, then the rapist/murderer has their free-will infringed upon. So whose free-will does god support?

Since he does not stop the crime from happening, then he has decided that the free-will of the criminal is more important than the free-will of the victim.

Which is the greater evil? Infringing on a rapist's free will or allowing someone to be raped/murdered?

3. If evil is as a result of our free-will, then what about heaven? In the Christian view, heaven will be a utopia, a paradise, with no suffering or pain. But people in heaven will also have free-will, right?

So free-will doesn't have to coexist with suffering/pain.

A Christian might say that all the evil people who cause harm wouldn't make it to heaven and only the saintly ones would. And so I ask, why couldn't that be the case here? Why couldn't god pluck out those he knew were going to be evil/immoral? He would have known because he's all knowing, right?

4. Where did Christian apologists get the idea that we have free-will? This notion of free-will is being challenged by discoveries in psychology and biology, but beyond scientific research, is the idea of free-will even supported biblically? Does the Bible ever say that we have free-will? Or that god gave us free-will?

I don't think so. Sure, you could infer from some passages in the Bible that we have free-will but there are also some passages that imply the opposite: that we either don't have free-will or that this free-will can be overridden by god whenever he wishes.

For example, there are passages like Romans 9:17‭-‬21 and Ephesians 1:11 which imply predestination; and passages like 2 Thessalonians 2:11, Exodus 14:8 and Proverbs 21:1 which imply that god can tamper with and override human free-will. So what are we to make of these passages?

5. At least some of the actions that I take and decisions that I make are partly influenced by my genetics, upbringing, environment, etc, things that I have no control over. Which means that at least some of the "choices" I make in my life aren't exactly of my own choosing. So we're not really free, at least not completely.

6. Does this free-will end in the afterlife? I'm told by Christians that we can't choose to be Christians after we're dead; that it'll be too late then. 

Well then, doesn't this mean that we no longer have free-will? I've also been told that those in heaven will have free-will. So we'll have free-will on earth and in heaven, but not in hell. Why? Why does this free-will cease in hell? Why don't I get to make a choice to repent, especially since this is when I have the most information to make an informed decision?

7. Even in heaven, is there really free-will? Heaven is described as a place where we would be worshipping forever. But what if we get tired of it and choose not to worship anymore? Can we make such a choice? If we can't, then do we really have free-will? Or if we do make the choice and we're kicked out, isn't that a violation of free-will? If that happens, the others there will feel scared and would be forced to worship because they wouldn't want to be cast out into hell as well.

Well, that's it. That's all.

These "thoughts" are more like questions, I guess.

But anyway, these are some of the things that pop into my mind when I hear apologists give a free-will argument/theodicy.