Volume 14, Issue 2, 2012
Symposium on Paul Moser's Religious Epistemology
W. Paul Franks
Pages 353-371
Original Sin and Broad Free-Will Defense
I begin with a distinction between narrow and broad defenses to the logical problem of evil. The former is simply an attempt to show that God and evil are not logically incompatible whereas the latter attempts the same, but only by appealing to beliefs one takes to be true in the actual world. I then argue that while recent accounts of original sin may be consistent with a broad defense, they are also logically incoherent. After considering potential replies, I conclude by proposing an account of original sin that is both logically coherent and consistent with a broad defense.