The Rationality of Free Will

Rationally, if there’s no free will, then God has designed every last atrocity that has ever happened to us, including rape, torture, murder and a never-ending list of other sins. But if there is free will, then the sins we commit are on our hands.

Furthermore, if God is love and we exist because of love, then rationally, only free will can create a scenario where true love can exist. If there is one thing all humans should be able to agree on from their own experience, it’s that true love cannot be forced. It cannot be coerced. It cannot be programmed. Alexa, Siri, and Google may have a tone that says, “I’m here to serve you and making you happy is all that matters to me,” but they do not care about you at all. You know that and therefore you don’t take your relationship with your device seriously (though the day is surely coming where that will change).

God does not want a bunch of Alexas, Siris, and Googles running around the earth. Sure, a programmed robot could actually serve God more faithfully than we often do with our free will, but that only further shows the rationality of the existence of free will. If all God cared about was filling the earth perfectly with His image, then He would have created robots instead of humans. Clearly, He wanted something more than that. He wanted relationship. He wanted love. 

If all God cared about was filling the earth perfectly with His image, then He would have created robots instead of humans. Clearly, He wanted something more than that. He wanted relationship. He wanted love.

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So if we have no free will then our love for God is not real, for it is not a choice. Likewise, if we have no free will, we must also define God’s love as the sins that He has apparently predestined to happen to us. Reason itself calls us to defend God’s character on this topic, and despite the arguments of some, the Bible backs up free will constantly and consistently.