Given that God wills to have free moral agents, then he must also will the world to operate according to natural laws, which will result in natural evils. The only alternative to a world operated by natural laws is a world operated by miracle, but such a miraculous world would not allow for the existence of free moral agents and a significant exercise of their freedom. Reichenbach's theodicy thus hangs on this chain of necessity which holds God to having to allow natural evils in order to have free moral agents, which he is also bound to do. Reichenbach gives two reasons for the impossibility of God creating free moral agents in a world operated my miracle. First, deliberation, a necessary condition for the exercise of rational choice, is prohibited given the confusion and unpredictability of a world operated by miracle.
Moral action requires rational deliberation on the best means to attaining one's desired end.
However, if the world does not operate according to any regularity, but only according to the caprice of divine will, then a moral agent has no way to anticipate which means are likely to bring about which ends. Moral action is thus thwarted because rational knowledge is impossible. A second problem with a world in which God miraculously prevents all natural evil is that a rational inhabitant would not be significantly free because he would not have the real ability to do evil. This is because no matter what one intended, no evil results would come from one's actions. Someone who tried to kill his neighbor, for example, would not be free to hurt that neighbor, since God would not allow that neighbor to be hurt.