I have come to adopt a view on the concept of free will which, I predict, is scorned by most of society. Regardless, I see no reason why I shouldn’t disclose it here. I will preface by saying that I derive my opinion on this subject through a Christian perspective, without which my argument probably has little standing. That being said, here we go.
I do not believe in free will. I believe it is an illusion built into our lives so that we may function the only way we know how. Consider this: God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. If you believe all of these are true, than you will find, as I have, that free will does not exist. At the end of the day, either God is in control, or He is not. What occurs outside of His will? Truly, nothing. If God is truly omniscient, then He knows what you’re going to say and do well before it occurs, and He knows the same about every person and every molecule in the universe. He knows what has happened, what is happening, and what is going to happen. Time does not exist for Him in His eternity. He also has a plan for each and every one of us, and indeed for the entire world. Shall any man do something to counteract or interrupt that plan? Shall any man do something that God did not anticipate from before the beginning of time? Even if man could do such a thing, would God not have already fashioned a response, also before the beginning of time?
What I’m getting at here is this: God knows everything, God controls everything, and thus we must control nothing. We can’t control something God doesn’t control, because He is truly omnipotent; we can’t truly make a choice because God, knowing that choice in advance, has prepared everything in existence proceeding that choice, allotting for that choice being made. What happens outside His knowledge or beyond His control? Again, nothing. As such, I have concluded, that free will is a concept implanted in our brains so that we may operate as beings, not robots. We think we have choice, and as such we are able to live with freedom of mind. That is the true key to existence. No, we don’t have free will, but because we think we do, we are able to live and to be, even though everything that ever was and will be has already been woven and put into place.
I’m pretty sure Calvin exhausted the idea of pre-destination a while ago, and I know I would face the stocks if I suggested I subscribed to that belief. I really don’t, because I don’t live my life like that. Call me a hypocrite, but I live my life as though I, and my fellow man, do have free will. But when I step back from the realm of practice and into the realm of theory, I cannot deny my conclusion: free will is just an illusion.
You’re right to say that your argument is limited. It’s hung mainly on the idea that God knows everything that’s going to happen. If you’re going to be put in the stocks for saying we have no free will, then I will certainly be right there beside you for suggesting that maybe God isn’t omniscient. I would venture to say that God knows what’s BEST for us to do, and he knows how to handled it if we don’t do what he wants us to do, but I think God gave up knowing what we will do in exchange for giving us a choice. I’ll give an example. The words in parenthesis are the part you don’t know but God knows.
ReplyDeleteGod tells you to by coffee for the woman standing in line behind you at Starbuck (so that when her car runs out of gas later that evening she won’t be stranded in the middle of nowhere). You have the choice to listen to God or not. If you decide not to, God arranges for the woman to get the money somewhere else (maybe he finds $5 on the ground on her way out) and you miss out on whatever blessing would have come from you buying her that coffee.
In this example, you have free will, but God is still in control of the overall situation.
Let me make one last thing clear. I’m not saying that God can’t see the future. I’m only saying he gave up the ability so that we could have free will.
An interesting perspective. I gathered much of my conclusion from Romans 9, which I probably should have cited. My views on the matter of free will are derived, to a sizable extent, from my personal interpretation of the passages within.
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