In a note on the Problem of Evil I wrote in July of 2007, I tried to examine the Leibnitzian theodicy and the idea of the "best of all possible worlds." In so doing, I proposed thinking of free will as P, the sum total goodness of our world as G and the sum total evil of our world as Y. I asked whether or not G - Y + P > G. That is, does free will somehow "cancel out" the evil in the world, or even make this world better than it otherwise would be?
A new paper in a religious philosophy journal criticizes Plantinga's version of the free will theodicy that claims the answer to my question is yes. The author does a really good job of dismantling this free will defense. Read it.
