The Dilemma of Freedom in Eden

Traditional versions of Christianity appear to be inconsistent in a variety of ways. The following example is one way to draw this out. First, a very simple telling of the Christian story.

God created human persons to be free, and in the Garden human persons enjoyed this freedom in the presence of God. Human persons abused their freedom, the story goes, and chose to chase God away. Once God was chased away, creation has been ruined ever since, and God must remain hidden. This situation is irrevocable, unless God accomplishes the Incarnation and Atonement, which opens the possibility for human persons once again to be free and in the presence of God. This reunion must wait until heaven, however. Furthermore, not all human persons will choose to be reunited with God in heaven. Some will continue to use their freedom in order to freely reject God, and these human persons will spend the afterlife in hell.

That is the story. And the story entails the following dilemma.

(1) Adam is in Garden, enjoys creaturely freedom in the presence of God, and *has* the ability to chase God away.

(2) Adam is in Heaven, enjoys creaturely freedom in the presence of God, and *lacks* the ability to chase God away.

(1) and (2) can't both be true. They are inconsistent. Which means that the story itself is inconsistent, because it entails an inconsistent set of consequences. Which means the story is false.

One way to resolve this dilemma would be to add a third statement which could render (1) and (2) consistent, such as the following:

(3) The words 'creaturely freedom' denote one type of freedom in the Garden, and a distinct type of freedom in Heaven.

The set of (1) through (3) is consistent. Though, now you'll have to modify the story, in order to reflect (3). Which, reveals a further dilemma:

(4) Adam has Garden-freedom in the Garden, and this is the creaturely freedom that God intended for Adam to have when he created Adam.

(5) Adam has Heaven-freedom in Heaven, and this is the creaturely freedom that God intended for Adam to have when he created Adam.

(4) and (5) can't both be true. So, insofar as our story entails (1) through (5), our story is still false. As before, we might add an additional statement:

(6) When God created Adam, God intended Adam to have one type of freedom in the Garden and another distinct type of freedom in Heaven.

As before, (1) through (6) are consistent, and we can modify the story accordingly. Though, it is doubtful whether the story can be modified without doing damage to many versions of the traditional Christian account.

For example, many versions of the traditional Christian account seem to entail something along the lines of the following:

(7) Heaven is God's way of restoring creation back to the way God intended it to be.

Even if (7) is a rough way to put it, the general idea seems clear. But, (6) and (7) are inconsistent.

(6) When God created Adam, God intended Adam to have one type of freedom in the Garden and another distinct type of freedom in Heaven. 

(7) Heaven is God's way of restoring creation back to the way God intended it to be.

Insofar as (6) and (7) are inconsistent, and that the story entails (6) and (7), the story is false.

Does Satan have creaturely freedom?

According to the traditional account, Satan is a fallen angel (or, at least, a fallen creature). That Satan is fallen entails that Satan has creaturely freedom. Satan's fall was presumably temporally prior to Adam and Eve's fall (in other words, The Fall). And, presumably, Satan's being fallen is a result of Satan's disobeying God in some way.

While the traditional account explains that the cause of The Fall was Adam and Eve's disobedience, tradition is curiously silent about why it was human disobedience which caused The Fall and not Satan's.

One possibility is that Satan's disobedience did in fact result in a Primeval Fall which was temporally prior to The Fall. Perhaps it was the Primeval Fall which first ruined creation. If the Primeval Fall occurred millions or billions of years ago, this might even neatly explain why so-called natural evil is (very much) more ancient than The Fall.

Perhaps there is support in the tradition for the idea that the Primeval Fall took place 'in Heaven' -- or perhaps, in other words at least, a creaturely location that is nonlocally related to Earth. At any rate, according to tradition, Satan is spatiotemporally located in The Garden when he tempts Adam and Eve.

The details are unfortunately unclear, however, leaving us with a handful of difficulties.

First, suppose a Primeval Fall transpired in Heaven. Even Heaven is susceptible to the effects of creaturely freedom. This would suggest that creaturely freedom leads unavoidably to disobedience. For the purposes of the afterlife, then, God would have need to restrict the freedom of human persons in Heaven in order to prevent another Fall.

Second, the strongest replies to atheological Divine Hiddenness arguments involve a premise along the lines of 'God must be hidden in order to protect the epistemic and cognitive freedom of his creatures.' But the fact of a heavenly Primeval Fall would establish that being in the full presence of God does not compromise creaturely freedom.

Third, on the other hand, there is the conceptual difficulty of explaining how it is that Satan -- a rational free agent with full knowledge and experience of the presence of God -- rejects God. What rational grounds could Satan have for freely rejecting God, and unrepentantly so?