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Chapter 4 - Divine Determinism and the Author of Sin Objection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2019

Peter Furlong
Affiliation:
Valencia College, Florida
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Summary

Critics of divine determinism sometimes claim that determinists make God the author of sin. This chapter takes up the question of whether this is true. I begin by disambiguating the claim, focusing on reading the charge as equivalent to the claim that God causes sin. I begin by considering a reply to this objection rooted in the claim that evil is a mere privation. According to this particular reply, sin is composed of the positive act of being (which God does cause) and a defect, which is a mere privation. This defect, the reply claims, is not caused by God, nor by an act of a human agent, but instead by a privation. I present three arguments for thinking that this reply is insufficient. I then suggest that divine determinists consider a more robust reply built off of the same analysis of evil and sin, but which claims that privations, lacking all being, cannot be caused at all.

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The Challenges of Divine Determinism
A Philosophical Analysis
, pp. 86 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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