If there was a god, they would apparently be putting 'having free will' as a higher priority than 'not having evil', no?
And without considering God, the question of free will does not become a lesser question. The philosophy of free will is intimately bound up in earthly questions regarding crime, punishment and personal responsibility. Our societal notions of fairness, and our willingness to consider mental state, and to allow the insane to escape punishment are all tied up in our acceptance or rejection of the concept of free will.
I am not sure that the origin of the concept is completely non-religious. Saying that it originated with the ancient Greeks isn't much proof given that those folks worshiped their own gods. What we can say is that the concept of free will is completely separable from religion and that there is no particular reason why even atheists would necessarily accept or reject the concept.
Let free will exist as "the ability of people to do the things they wish to do but within limits".
Or
quote:
the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.
Or
quote:
Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
Not really, it is a theory that is imposed on nature so consistently that you think you are observing it. -- Faith
Some of us are worried about just how much damage he will do in his last couple of weeks as president, to make it easier for the NY Times and Washington post to try to destroy Trump's presidency. -- marc9000
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