Title Author Date

Against the free will defense Lehrer, Michael Nov 20, 2009

The Problem with this argument is that we can make a reasonable case that God would have no problem reducing FW for a specified amount of time (sleeping), but that still gives the sleeper the ability to choose whatever actions he/she wants. However, stopping people from committing an evil act is a true interference of FW for the person that wants to commit it. In short, eradicating evil acts affects the range of actions that a person can do while sleeping merely affects the time one has to to them.

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Title Author Date

Against the free will defense Plugaru, Horia George Nov 21, 2009

I would very much like to see the "reasonable case that God would have no problem reducing FW for a specified amount of time (sleeping)". How can theists maintain on one hand that FW is worth millions of horrendous acts of violence and other atrocities, but on the other hand that man is forced to abandon his "precious" FW daily for at least 5-6 hours with no apparent
good reason?

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Title Author Date

Against the free will defense Lehrer, Michael Apr 22, 2010

I responded to this once before but I see it was not posted so I will try again. The point is that an individual who can do *whatever* he wants for 18 hours per day can be said to have free will to to whatever he wants. For example, if the reason god wanted free will was to reward people who follow his directives, then by letting people sleep, he is not impinging on that goal. People can still be judged by their actions within the time they have free will, with the same range of activities that they would have had, had they not required sleep. You didn't ask that since people do not live
forever, that disproves the free will defense, because it is obvious, that free will means in the time that people have the ability to do things. Same thing with sleep, the same argument can be made.

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Title Author Date

Against the free will defense TalkReason , Apr 22, 2010

Dear Mr. Lehrer:

We have no recollection of any earlier unpublished letter from you. If it indeed was submitted but not posted, it probably was due to some accidental circumstances. We have now posted your letter. We cannot predict whether some other readers will choose to respond to it.

Best wishes,

Talk Reason

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