have no doubt that it does not belong to God. Because that defective movement is voluntary, it is placed within our power. If you fear it, all you have to do is simply not to will it. If you do not will it, it will not exist (2.20.54). Pressed further, he says that "an evil will is . . . the cause of all evil wills," indicating that no cause is to be found outside the will itself and suggesting that to look further is itself evidence of an evil will (Cf. *The City of God* 12.7). Despite this rather radical appeal to human freedom and his pious admonition that one ought not to look further for the cause of an evil will, Augustine realizes that he is not yet off the hook. He goes on to show that the necessity intrinsic to foreknowledge, *per se*, is not inconsistent with the notion of free will (3.4.10). But considering the fact that divine foreknowledge is coupled with omnipotence, how, in the final analysis, "is the creator to escape having imputed to him anything that happens necessarily in his creature" (3.5.12)? Augustine spends the next 20, or so, paragraphs attempting to defend God against those who would cry foul. He begins by insisting that piety requires that we give thanks to God--period (3.5.12). Then, he reaffirms his position that sin originates in the free will of human beings and that we have no right to criticize God for not creating us without the ability to turn away from him (3.5.14). He goes on to assert that even the worst souls are, by virtue of their reason and their free will, superior to corporeal things and that, as such, God should be praised for their existence, whatever defects they exhibit (3.5.16). Then, after once again affirming that there is no conflict between the necessity of sin and its voluntary origin, he describes unhappiness as the just reward of ingratitude (3.6.18). Finally, to those who say they would prefer not to have existed, he indicates that they are fooling themselves --that their desire...
