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Free will, why we do not have it and why it is not a bad thing.
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Free will, why we do not have it and why it is not a bad thing.
The topic of free will and the question of if we have it is a very tricky situation. This is because we FEEL like we are always making decisions for ourselves, and we do not have a higher power physically telling us what to do and forcing our body to do it. However, in some Christian faiths, there is no question of if we have free will because the Bible hints to us we do not. There are multiple verses in the Bible that mention predestination and foreknowledge, such as Romans 8:29-30, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…” and 1 Peter 1:2, “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” Some may have tried to argue that there can be foreknowledge without determinism, however, this means that we would have to reject the fact that God is omniscient. This statement becomes immediately rejected, and is clearly rejected in Romans due to the connection of foreknowledge with predestination using the word “also.” To move on to why free will is not a bad thing to lack, think about the person that you are. For example, take a motivated, fail-fearing student. Those who reject the idea of determinism may say if the student believed in determinism, he may think, “I can just lay on the couch for a week and because of determinism, I do not have to lift a finger and the things that are meant to happen will happen.” However, this view is actually fatalism and because God predestined this student with the characteristics of motivation and fear of failure, the student will not lay on the couch for a week, and he will be proactive in getting what he has to get done. My point is, along with predestination comes the tools that are God given to set those events in motion.
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1 Reply
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This is an interesting take. Have you ever looked at Molinism and middle knowledge? Counterfactuals and creaturely freedom and all that?
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