RA035: Andrew Pavelich on the Moral Problem with the Free Will Defense

Real Atheology

Perhaps the most common response to the problem of evil is an appeal to the goodness of free will. Free will, it is argued, is so good that it justifies God's policy of non-intervention in cases where evil is the result of the free actions of moral agents. in his 2019 article published in The Heythrop Journal titled The Moral Problem with the Free Will Defense Against the Problem of Evil, Dr. Andrew Pavelich argues that there exists a deep disconnect between the theist's appraisal of free will's value and the role it plays in our everyday moral judgements. In Justin's interview with Dr. Pavelich, they discuss the ideas in that paper.