Predestination and free will: philosophical perspectives

Theology - Free Will

PREDESTINATION and FREE WILL

The debate over predestination and free will played a formative role on the evolution of different Christian faiths, particularly during the Middle Ages (Armstrong, 85). It remains one of the most divisive controversies, even among contemporary Christian theologians. The Anglicans, Assembly of God, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians all maintain (in various forms) that we do not choose or elect to accept God at all; instead, God selects those of us who are predestined for salvation as well as those of us who are predestined to sin and endure eternity in Hell. Meanwhile, Baptists, Methodists, and Roman Catholics believe just as strongly that we enjoy free will and therefore, have the option to choose or elect to accept Christ and that salvation is a reward for the election of devotion to God instead of the rejection of God's overture of love (Ibid, 86).

Jews, Muslim, and secular science also maintain a perspective on the issue, precisely because the practical ramifications of the distinction between predestination and free will directly determine the relationship of man to God, as well as to the universe. The distinction between predestined human behavior and behavior that emanates from the exercise of free will also defines fundamental secular concepts such as morality, justice, and the imposition of penal law. Therefore, the debate that originated primarily among Medieval Christian theologians is equally relevant today, to Christians, to believers in other religious faiths and to secular nonbelievers as well.

The Concept of Predestination in Christian Theology:

The essential concept of predestination in Christian theology is that each of us is born already predetermined to share eternity with God in Heaven or to burn in Hell for all eternity completely irrespective of our actions and any other choices we may make on earth (Bennet, 2004). In that respect, to refer to our actions on earth is not the apparent contradiction suggested by many who object to the notion of predestination. That is principally because the distinction between predetermination and choice applies only to actions (or choices) that relate to goodness or sin. It does not necessarily mean that predestination for goodness and salvation or evil and damnation precludes us from inconsequential choices, such as what to eat for breakfast or what shirt to wear on any given day (Deem, 2008; Fallon, 73-4). Certainly, there are those who do adhere to the strictest possible interpretation of the concept of predestination, although many of them may do so only as a function of confusion over the notion of God's omniscience. Specifically, the reasoning is that God knows everything that will ever happen, including the most infinitesimal minutia at the "breakfast" level and further down to the microscopic level; to believe in human free will in any respect, therefore, is necessarily a refutation of God's omniscience and tantamount to heresy. Calvinists in particular consider the notion of human free will to usurp God's fundamental sovereignty (Bennet, 2004; Deem, 2008; Fallon, 74).

Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians believe that sinners sin not because they choose to do so but because they were put on earth by God for that purpose. In that view, God knows which of us would have sinned with the benefit of free will because He knows our hearts in his omniscience. Therefore, God uses those of us He knows to be sinners within His plan for man on earth to accomplish His strategic objectives. For example, Pharaoh the sinner served God's purpose of demonstrating His powers to the Israelites.

Calvinists, in particular, go even further, maintaining that the literal translation of biblical scripture in Exodus 7:14 (King James Version) "And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said. And the LORD said unto

Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuseth to let the people go means exactly what it says (Deem, 2008). According to that view, God not only is goodness or evil not a matter of human choice, but God actually intervenes very directly to allow those whom He knows to be predestined sinners to help God accomplish his objectives and his plan for humans on earth. Furthermore, according to that belief, the Bible is replete with indications that God specifically chose certain individuals and groups for salvation, including King David, the Levite priests, Abraham, and the whole Judean tribe (Ibid).

Finally, Calvinists also suggest that belief in free will itself is proof that one has not been selected for salvation because the truth of predestination is only revealed in life to those chosen by God for salvation (Armstrong, 122; 187; 201; Voak, 204; 207).

The Concept of Free Will in Christian Theology:

Christians who believe in human free will fundamentally reject the predestination perspective, mainly because the implications of predestination necessarily mean that each of us is incapable of choosing or electing to accept God's love and follow Christ's teachings. To Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics, eternal life with God in Heaven is the reward for accepting Christ and damnation the consequences (even if not necessarily punishment, per se) for rejecting God's overture of love while we inhabit His earth

Armstrong, 187). In that view, all of us are born since Adam's fall are equally capable of sin, but none of us is predestined to sin without our control (Capoccia, 2009).

In that view, God loves us all equally (including the sinners) and what God most desires from us is a bilateral relationship in which our love is freely given in return for the offer of His. In that respect, predestination completely extinguishes any value of our reciprocal love for our Creator, precisely because it is not of our choice but is merely a function of what is inherent in our nature. Given that God the Creator must know before our birth which of us is predestined to sin, without free will, the whole of human existence can be of no greater value to God than an ant farm or a roomful of mindless robots.

Furthermore, if human actions are predetermined, that calls into question what possible purpose there can be to life on earth, and that pertains as much for those predestined for salvation as those predestined to sin. Even more importantly, if one accepts the Calvinist belief that God actually does intervene in human affairs to further His plan, such as by hardening the hearts of sinners, then there is no explanation possible for why God does not also intervene to accomplish good or to protect the innocent from the actions of those sinners whom God himself sometimes (according to Calvinists) causes to act out in sin. Therefore, one of the logical conclusions of predestination, according to opponents of that belief is that (if true) God, and not man, is responsible for human sin (Tavard, 60-61; Voak, 209), which is a fundamentally heretical notion.

The Secular Scientific View:

Before the discovery of quantum physics in the beginning of the 20th century, even many secularists believed that human life and every other occurrence in the universe might very well be predestined, although not in any conscious way, such as involving any God. In that view, the phenomenon of spontaneous choice is an illusion due to the sheer complexity of variables reflected in outward human behavior. In the physical world, the eventual locations of every drop of rain or every speck of dust is strictly determined by preceding natural events such as weather and the external influence of other equally dependent variables. Likewise, every human action and every human thought is determined by myriad variables in the realm of biology, inheritance, formative experiences, and external influences. In principle, an individual's apparent choices at the behavioral level are nothing more than the sum total of perhaps millions, billions, or trillions of neurological responses within the human brain to environment and inherent biological nature (Hawking, 172-3)1.