The Free Will Defense article is excellent, I really enjoyed it and will be studying it to learn points of the argument that I hadn't previously considered. My mind thinks in regards to skeptics' responses and possible rebuttals. How does the concept of morally significant freedom relate to heaven? As you argued, its existence on earth is tied to the ability to make real choices between good and bad options and the freedom and ability to act upon those options in ways that necessitate the possibility of real evil and human suffering as a necessary effect. If heaven is a place where God dwells and we with him, in a state that is absent sin, which is significantly different than our earthly existence, how will we maintain our nature as free beings if the option to choose between good and bad options ceases to exist? I know there are many scriptures saying heaven will be without sin or temptation or suffering and while I fully believe it, I am uncertain how to reconcile the necessity of moral choice in the first creation and what appears to be the lack of this requirement in the second (new heavens, new earth, wherein righteousness reigns - 3:13). Perhaps a subject for a follow-up article :-)?
The Free Will Defense article is excellent, I really enjoyed it and will be studying it to learn points of the argument that I hadn't previously considered. My mind thinks in regards to skeptics' responses and possible rebuttals. How does the concept of morally significant freedom relate to heaven? As you argued, its existence on earth is tied to the ability to make real choices between good and bad options and the freedom and ability to act upon those options in ways that necessitate the possibility of real evil and human suffering as a necessary effect. If heaven is a place where God dwells and we with him, in a state that is absent sin, which is significantly different than our earthly existence, how will we maintain our nature as free beings if the option to choose between good and bad options ceases to exist? I know there are many scriptures saying heaven will be without sin or temptation or suffering and while I fully believe it, I am uncertain how to reconcile the necessity of moral choice in the first creation and what appears to be the lack of this requirement in the second (new heavens, new earth, wherein righteousness reigns - 3:13). Perhaps a subject for a follow-up article :-)?