Philosophy deals with ‘why’s and Science deals with ‘How’s. This post is about my philosophical pondering on Free Will. I will post more articles on the topic in coming posts.
“Your power to choose is not absolute. There is some super force that fills the space ‘things that you cannot choose.”
“When people consider themselves to be equipped with a power to choose, they deny the existence of any God. The God they are referring to is the one who could control their power to choose. Earlier, they might have assumed that God took some decisions in their life. Now they come to an understanding that there is no such God. That’s cool. Rise and Shine.”
“People who have this ‘power to choose’ are known to be free. But wait, what about the outcome? There is no control over the outcome. Can we choose outcomes as well? Law of attraction indicates that we CAN choose the outcomes. You will have to choose at the level of thoughts. All the decisions are made at the level of thought. Law of attraction asks you to choose your actions and outcomes as well. To have the power to choose an outcome, you need to align your thoughts, feelings and actions. People, who considered Law of Attraction to be true, have increased their sphere of possibilities.”
“You choose and someone else decides the outcome. You can easily come to believe this statement to be true. That poses another serious question – Who chooses the outcome? Is it God for you? You can simply put off the question by considering the outcome to be random. Still, I feel, deep down the outcomes are not even random to some degree. That which we don’t understand appears chaotic. If you can observe patterns in the way we can choose actions and outcomes, you would have really begun to answer those questions to yourself.”
Posted by God Is There on May 4, 2010 at 10:15 am
[...] this time. We have conversed about decisions that we take in our daily lives. We have seen the philosophical viewpoints around free will. There will be more, I am sure. Feel free to drop your views in the comment [...]
Posted by Priya on May 10, 2010 at 7:38 pm
that poses a serious question.. is it God ??
Posted by holy007lotus on May 12, 2010 at 9:39 am
Posted by Curt Wildy on May 18, 2010 at 2:40 pm
The human will is not free at all — not in any sense and not to any degree. Our wills are completely sold out to our own sin, selfishness, and to the kingdom of satan. We would be free to exercise our will unto all manner of evil if left to ourselves (unrestrained)…. but God does not leave anyone utterly to themselves and completely unrestrained… He orders *all things* in accordance with (a) His own sovereign will; (b) His own predetermined and eternal purpose; and (c) the eternal good of His elect people. God leaves nothing to “chance,” nothing to “fate,” nothing to our own whims and fancies and nothing for us to just work out on our own. God ordains all things for the good of His people – all things would not be for the good of His people if mankind were “free” to exercise their wicked wills.
The Bible is clear that we only have the freedom to do that which God has ordained and purposed that we would do; He does not react to us, but conforms us. He knows that by nature our will (thoughts, words, deeds, emotions, etc.) would only seek and manifest that which is evil in His sight. For the wicked, he curbs the manifestation of their wickedness to suit His design. The wicked are free to do evil if left to themselves, but never free to do true good (because they are incapable of it — even their “good deeds and kind words” would lack the right motivation and purpose to make them “good” in the sight of God).
For the regenerated saint, He works in them BOTH to will and to do of His good pleasure. He says of His people in Ephesians 2:10, that they ‘…are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO good works, which God hath BEFORE ORDAINED that they should walk in them.’
Salvation is about about God’s will, God’s grace, God’s purpose, God’s mercy, and God’s glory. Free-will, i.e. a will sold out to sinful, natural self, is about as free as an inmate locked-up in the prison of his/her own corruption. There are lots of questions, and the Bible is utterly full of the answers to them. It is unmistakable – God is the only one with free will… man is the only one with delusions to the contrary (not even Satan is foolish enough to think that his will is free – he, like us, can only do what God has ordained and ordered). To God be the glory.