Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

Atheism and Theism 61
discussion will suggest that there is a real problem for the theist here, and
that probably no plausible solution of the problem exists.
Since God creates not only the universe but the laws according to which it
operates, he is not bound by any merely physical necessity. The only necessity
that binds him is logical necessity; for example, he cannot create a universe
in which pain both exists and does not exist. This is no real inability: since
logical principles assert nothing about the world, so that whatever the world
was like they would still apply, they do not constitute a constraint on God’s
power.
Nor do we need here to consider trick cases, such as whether God can
make a box that he cannot open. These do not describe a real constraint on
God’s power. However, something a bit like this sort of problem will arise
shortly when we consider ‘the free will defence’.
Since God is not constrained by physical necessity there is no need for him
to use painful means to attain a good end, as a dentist may have to when
drilling a tooth.
The Free Will Defence
A common argument that is meant to reconcile God’s omnipotence, omniscience
and goodness with the existence of evil is that evil is due to misuse of
the free will with which God has endowed us, and that the value of free will
itself is so great as to outweigh the evils that proceed from it. The idea is
usually combined with a libertarian theory of free will according to which free
will is incompatible with determinism, and that even God could not create
free beings who were always caused by their beliefs and desires to act rightly.
One weakness of the free will defence is its reliance on a libertarian theory
of free will. I shall consider this shortly. Another weakness is, prima facie at
least, that it totally ignores natural evils. Consider a two-year-old child dying
painfully of cancer. To whose misuse of free will could this be put down?
Even if free will had value, and if it was the misuse of free will by explorers
that led to epidemics (as measles was brought to Australia and the South
Pacific whose people lacked immune resistance to it), was the value of the
free will comparable to the disvalue of the subsequent suffering? What about
earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes which cause suffering due to no one’s
fault? What about the very existence of dangerous bacteria and viruses? It
would betoken a mediaeval mind to put natural evils down to a wrong choice
made in the Garden of Eden by Eve, and what a strange sort of God would
have allowed such a choice to be so harmful. The story of Adam and Eve is
of course capable of some allegorical truth. The apple brought the knowledge
of good and evil, and certainly human increase in knowledge in general has
brought many sufferings, as the invention of nuclear weapons will testify, as