Saint Augustines Deduction that Free Will is a Good Gift...

Saint Augustines Deduction that Free Will is a Good Gift from God Before the central theme of this essay is analytically summarized, it is important to note a few propositions already established in the conversations between Saint Augustine and Evodius. Firstly, Saint Augustine has already ascertained that God gave human beings free choice of the will – Evodius is also sure of this proposition. He deduces that since our existence came from God, then it must be God who gave us free will. Secondly, Augustine then questions Evodius on how he knows that our existence comes from God. His answer begs the question as he†¦show more content†¦Evodius notes that our free will could also be used wrongly. This jeopardizes the second proposition that all good things come from God. Augustine rebuts this argument of Evodius by giving another example. He states that a great good is missing from the body with no hands and yet people can use their hands wrongly (i.e., by committing violent/shameful acts). Augustine is still begging the questi on. He states that it is better to have something which be used for just and unjust acts the not possess it at all. From this statement, however, one can conclude that free will is not a good thing in itself because it can lead to wrong or unjust acts. Saint Augustine was a Christian, and a brief and simple counterexample from his religious perspective could prove this proposition to be false. Augustine states that a great good is missing if someone lost their hands or eyes, which both could be used for good and bad purposes. Yet, Jesus’ philosophy states that it is better to not have something which is causing one to sin or commit unjust acts. Jesus says that it is better to enter the Kingdom of Heaven with one ‘good’ hand than one ‘good’ and one ‘bad’ hand. This would also imply that the ‘bad’ hand was a ‘bad’ gift from God. Further in the discussion, Saint Augustine goes on to say that free will is a good gift since no one can liveShow MoreRelated Happiness in the Fourth Epistle of Alexander Popes An Essay on Man5580 Words   |  23 PagesDesign of the poem, Pope asserted that in order to understand man or any creature, it was necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being. For Pope, drawing on a venerable ideal from antiquity onwards, the end and purpose of humanity was happiness.1 As he exclaims at the very beginning of the fourth epistle, The heritage of the supremacy of happiness is impressive. For example, Aristotle believed that happiness was mans strongestRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesSacramento, CA 95819 USA ii iii Preface Copyright  © 2011-14 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namely by citing his name, the book title, and the relevant