The AskPhilosophers logo.

Religion

Surely Christians have to believe in free will. If they believe in a loving God who controls their destiny and that all bad things happen for an overall good (otherwise God would not let it happen), then wouldn't it be impossible to believe that God would send a person to hell as punishment for something they had done, as it would have been God's will for them to do so in the first place?
Accepted:
November 25, 2005

Comments

Richard Heck
November 25, 2005 (changed November 25, 2005) Permalink

The standard sort of response to this question is that God does not will evil. There has been a fair amount of discussion of this in connection with question 1 and question 80. That said, it's another question whether one finds the resulting position at all plausible.

  • Log in to post comments
Source URL: https://askphilosophers.org/question/629
© 2005-2025 AskPhilosophers.org