Day 8 of 28
The Shocking Alternative
Free Will and the Darkness It Made Possible
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Genesis 3:1-5: The serpent's temptation of Eve — "You will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Then read Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."
Reflection
Lewis now addresses the question every thoughtful person asks: if God is good and all-powerful, why does evil exist? His answer centers on free will.
God could have made a world of automata — creatures that always did the right thing because they had no choice. But such creatures could never love, because love requires freedom. A robot that says "I love you" because it is programmed to do so is not really loving. Love must be freely given or it is not love at all.
"God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot."
Freedom is a dangerous gift. It makes possible heroism, sacrifice, and genuine love — but it also makes possible cruelty, betrayal, and rebellion. God, Lewis argues, judged the risk worth taking. The alternative — a universe of puppets — would contain no evil but also no love.
"Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."
Genesis 3 dramatizes the moment the risk was realized. The serpent's temptation is precisely an appeal to free will: "You will be like God." The human choice to reject God's authority and seize autonomy — this is the origin of every evil that has followed.
Paul traces the consequence in Romans 5: through one man's choice, sin and death entered the world. The damage was catastrophic and universal. But Paul does not stop there — he goes on (in the verses that follow) to argue that the solution is even greater than the problem.
Going Deeper
Lewis is honest that free will does not solve every dimension of the problem of evil. It does not explain natural disasters or animal suffering. But it does explain the core of the human predicament: we are creatures made for love who have chosen rebellion instead. And it explains why God does not simply override our choices — because to do so would be to destroy the very thing that makes us capable of relationship with Him.
The "shocking alternative" of Lewis's title is this: God would rather have free creatures who can reject Him than controlled creatures who never could.
Key Quotes
“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot.”
“If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
Prayer Focus
Thanking God for the gift of free will — and asking for the grace to use it rightly
Meditation
Would you prefer a world where no one could choose evil but no one could truly love either? What does your answer reveal about the nature of love?
Question for Discussion
If free will is the only thing that makes love possible, was it worth the horrific evil it also made possible — the Holocaust, child abuse, genocide? How does your group wrestle with the cost of freedom, and where does the free-will argument fall short as an explanation for suffering?