Could God Make a Morally Perfect Being with Free Will?

This is the weekly Q & A blog post by our Research Professor in Philosophy, Dr. William Lane Craig.

Question

Could God make a morally perfect being with free will?

Jim

United States

Dr. William Lane Craig's Response

Admirable succinctness, Jim! I’m tempted just to say, “No” and leave it at that!

But to expand a bit, I think that a morally perfect being with free will is possible. That’s what God is. Libertarian freedom does not require the ability to do the opposite, in this case to sin, but simply that the choice be up to you in the absence of causal determination. For the same reason Jesus freely resisted temptation even though it was impossible for him to succumb.

But my scepticism lodges in the fact that I don’t see how God could create a morally perfect being. A morally perfect being would fully approximate the divine nature. He would be worthy of worship. Therefore he would be God. But God is, necessarily, uncreatable. He exists necessarily a se. So God could not create another God, a replica.

This Q&A and other resources are available on Dr. William Lane Craig's website.