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Are omnipotence and necessary moral perfection compatible? Reply to Mawson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2003

WES MORRISTON
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 232, Boulder, CO 80309

Abstract

In response to an earlier paper of mine, T. J. Mawson has argued that omnipotence is logically incompatible with wrong-doing, ‘whilst accepting that there is “a genuine, active power knowingly to choose evil” and thus leaving room for a free-will defence to the problem of evil’. Here, I attempt to show that Mawson is mistaken on both counts – that his argument for the incompatibility of omnipotence and wrong-doing is defective, and that the free-will defence cannot be sustained on the ground marked out by him. Given Mawson's understanding of power and freedom, I argue that it would be possible for God to create persons who are both free and unable to make evil choices.

Type
Reply to Mawson
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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