Thanks u/Plemethrock
We can have a discussion on whether or not free will exists. Discuss if every action we do is already predetermined by how our brain is wired, with the environment around us being the inputs.
We can also have a discussion on whether or not humans have souls and analyze the evidence for and against us just being our bodies
(I made an error and had to repost, apologies)
Of course it does. If it did not, sin could not exist. Predetermination is the original cope.
That implies evil exists as a consequence of free will. Is that what you're saying?
That's the correct Christian doctrine on free will and evil, yes. Evil doesn't have a positive existence but it's the negation of the good and the result of our own free will failing to choose the good.
So, are you saying this only applies to the New Testament? the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, begs to differ. He admits to creating evil himself. Look at Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.". The Hebrew word used here is raw. It means adversity, calamity, disaster, evil. He does not say he allows evil. He says he creates it. He authors it.
So, if Yahweh creates evil then how could evil exist as a consequence of free will?
u/SmithW1984 clarified your statement, noting evil doesn't have a positive existence. Evil in the abstract refers to something else from which goodness is absent. Because of this, the Hebrew word typically refers to evil events (adversities, calamities, disasters). It is not contrasted to good (abstract), but to shalom (physical wholeness).
You have taken "create" and "author" as synonymous, but they are used separately. To create is to bring into physical existence, but to author in this sense is to speak or carry out in reference to actions. So Yahweh "creating evils" isn't incompatible with humans being responsible for doing evil, because Yahweh is not evil when he selects just calamities as part of his created narrative.
It doesn't imply that.