Free Will Defense Of Molinism And God's Middle Knowledge

Molinism has been the subject of many discussions in analytic philosophy of religion ever since Alvin Plantinga accepted it in his Free Will Defense against the "Logical" Argument from Evil. Molinism presupposes libertarian freedom. Libertarianism, is defined as the proposition that opportunity is contradictory with causal determinism, in addition to the case, some of our activities are free. The debate over Molinism is gravitated around several sets of ideals, for this paper I will focus on the theoretical Tie objection and God’s middle knowledge. The main focus of Molinism is the proposition that God has middle knowledge. God 's middle knowledge is purported in light of the fact that it remains 'in-between’ God 's natural and free

So given the details about the Lewis-Stalnaker semantics lets delve back into the objection. Molinist 's response to this objection is that we must understand that sharing the same counterfactuals of freedom is part of what makes for the closeness between the various worlds. The main concept of this ‘Tie’ argument is to take any CCF’s and its opposite: ‘If Loki were in circumstances C in the 2017, he would kill Thor and ‘if Loki were in circumstances C in 2017, he would not kill Thor.’ Which of these situations are true? Neither. The take away points on the Tie argument is that CCF’s are neither true nor false. They hold no truth indicators. So if I apply the Lewis- Stalnaker semantics, they would be tied. To expand more on the topic there are at least two worlds exactly like our world and similarly in the other possible worlds where Loki does kill Thor, in another world where he doesn’t kill Thor, nothing will break this tie. My response to this is that there are distinguishing factors between the worlds and what makes them recognizable. Each of the worlds have different counterfactuals that make them noticeable from other various worlds and possibilities. In the world where Loki doesn’t kill Thor, Loki did an action that caused the future to shift and in the world where Loki does kill Thor, Loki did a similar action that lead to Thor’s death. Those minute actions caused different outcomes, and that made their worlds

Thusly, the principle of middle knowledge permits one to attest an extremely solid perspective of divine sovereignty in which nothing happens separated from God 's will or consent, and a libertarian perspective of human freedom in which individuals can do other than what they really do. To clarify on these statements I will be using a hypothetical situation to further my beliefs and standings. If God were to place John in Pilates position he (John) would choose to release Jesus by his own free actions, but God knows that this would go against his preordained plan. He chose to have made Pilate so his plans would go accordingly. Had God known that Pilate would choose to release Jesus He could have chosen not to create him. Hence by acknowledgement of God’s middle knowledge Molinism allows one to understand how God can be divinely sovereign over a world of free humans. By knowing how humans would freely choose, in certain circumstances God will decide where to place them and what world. With His middle knowledge, He can determine where and which humans to create and which particular circumstances to designate them in, so that they freely bring about his