Free Will, Determinism and Predestination (1.4)

Question 1

What do Christians believe about Free Will (include Augustine and Aquinas)

Answer 1

• Aquinas said that god created human beings with knowledge of good and evil + reason to guide our decision making
• we are born sinful
• Augustine — still have a tendency to sin, the soul is divided and even though it knows what is morally good it is weakened by the desires of the body and chooses to sin

Question 2

What are Christian teachings about Free Will

Answer 2

• evil and suffering entered the world because God gave Adam and Eve free will and they ate from the tree of knowledge
• Aquinas said that god created humans with the knowledge of good and evil and freedom over their actions. He said that god gave them reason and revelation (guidance from the church, bible, prayer) to choose wisely

Question 3

What are the problems with omniscience

Answer 3

Omniscience - all knowing
+ God knows what we will choose however we still have responsibility over our choices + we are free to choose differently
- If God knows what will happen then this means that any other outcome is impossible – we don’t have any real choice + therefore shouldn’t be held responsible
+ God knows all possible outcomes but not the one we will choose
- This is not real knowledge

Question 4

What are some Non - Christian views on Free Will

Answer 4

Free will - (the belief that) the human will is so free that human beings have been given the right to exercise control over other living things
- some people argue that we are completely free to make our own choices in life. They say that this is important in order for us to have responsibility for our actions –Libertarianism
- Some people argue that even though our choices in the past and our personality does limit our choice to a certain extent, we are still responsible for our actions because we are not fully controlled by them

Question 5

What are the Christian views on predestination (John Calvin)

Answer 5

• Protestant John Calvin argued that since the fall people are inherently sinful and nobody can be good enough to earn their way into heaven
• This means that salvation must be a gift from God. It is not based on how we act
• Calvin argued that God chose who to give the gift of salvation to before they are born. those who are given the gift are called the elect. those who aren’t are called the reprobate and are naturally sinful and destined for hell
• Calvin thought that the Holy Spirit would be active in the lives of the elect which would enable them to do good deeds. the reprobate would not have the Holy Spirit helping them so they would naturally give into sinful nature. therefore good people (the elect) are doing good because god is helping them and bad people have no choice but to do bad because it is natural human nature. this means we are predestined and not free

Question 6

What problems could be raised about Calvin’s views on predestination

Answer 6

• why would an omnibenevolent God create the reprobate and not give everyone a chance of getting into heaven?
• an important Christian idea is that humans have free will to obey or disobey God and choose good or evil. We are then judged by God at the end of our lives. if predestination is true then judgment is pointless
• if true then we have no responsibility over out actions
• many Christians believe that God wants all people to be saved. it says in the bible that Christ died for the sins of all the people “for god so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”

Question 7

why would someone be in support of predestination

Answer 7

• makes sense if put in context, Calvin was writing during the protestant reformation and one of the criticisms that the reformers had of the roman catholic church was that it was claiming to have control who could get into heaven
• Priests told the people that they couldn’t get into heaven without the sacraments and this meant that excommunication was seen as sentencing a person to hell. the church also offered ‘indulgences’ which were prayers which promised a person purgatory so they could go more quickly into heaven. Calvin wanted to emphasize that who went to hell and heaven was entirely up to god and not down to what the roman catholic hierarchy said

Question 8

Why do some religious people believe that god decides their fate and others don’t (yes and no)

Answer 8

YES:
- some Christians believe in John Calvin’s view of predestination and therefore believe that god decides their fate
- some Christians believe this because they believe that you can’t earn your way, but that god is omniscient and knows who will go heaven and who will go to hell.
NO:
- some Christians believe this because humans have freewill to obey or disobey god and choose good or evil. we are then judged by god at the end of our lives. if predestination is true then judgment is pointless
- an important Christian belief is that human choice whether or not to believe in Christ. Christians believe Christ died so that all people had the possibility to go into heaven