Theological Determinism Flashcards
whats theological determinism?
-god is omniscient
-causal chain can be traced back to god, the uncaused first cause
-predestination; god already decided who are ‘the elect’
-if god knows a person will perform an action at some point in the future the person cant avoid doing that action
-FW must be an illusion, all moral behaviour has already been planned and known about by God
TD earliest form
-led likes of st Augustine and Calvin to doctrine of Predestination
-omniscient God must know entire past, present, and future of universe and humanity.
Calvin quote
“some are eternally ordained to glory”
Concupscience - roots
-Augustines doctrine of original sin starts by arguing that the outcome of ‘original sin’ is that sin became major defect of human character
-one of the outcomes of original sin which tainted A +E perfect nature - AUGUSTINE CALLED THUS DEFECT CONCUPISCENE’
concupiscent definition
-Latin term that means ‘longing’ and is associated with human senses e.g longing for earthly material things - food,sex etc.
why is concupiscene passed onto world?
- all humanity is related to Adam and Eve. Augustine argues all of humanity inherited Adams sin, thus Adams guilt is humanities
- all humanity born from sexual intercourse, which is itself a result on concupiscent and thus all humanity inherits concupiscene
Calvin
-Calvin not committed to view that humans are free
-their actions are part of gods will
-Adam and Eve were free but their ‘fall’ was also part of gods plan
-the ‘fall’ destroyed human free will and because of this human are unable to achieve salvation through their own merits
-the elect are those chosen by gods grace to be freed of sin and to earn salvation
a problem with Calvins view..
-a more reasonable option for God would’ve been not to create humanity in the first place
-leaving aside predestination the problem still remains that an omniscient Gods foreknowledge must be causal, because if God knows that you will do ‘x’ at a specific point in future you cant avoid doing ‘x’
-FW an illusion and ell events are determined by Gods omniscience
Issues about time with TD
-a timeless God
-aquinas’ view is that god doesnt exist in time, rather timelessly.
-for god there’s no tmrw/yesterday he sees all times, like unrolled scroll, so sees entire history of universe timelessly
-some argue gods omniscience means god sees the result of our future free choices but doesnt cause them.
-God has power to intervene and control but doesnt he permits human free choices.
evaluation - temporal god
-alt view god exists in time
-if this case god cant know future, so TD false.
-christian process theologians see god and physical universe as two aspects of one reality
-god equivalent with all physical processes of universe
-in physical world future has not yet happened - a temporal god wouldn’t know future, so wouldn’t be a threat to human FW
strengths
-clear answer to question ‘are we really free’
-uses logic to suggest conclusion
-supports fideism and is therefore applicable to religious people
weaknesses
-makes god out to be immoral monster
-makes religious faith pointless
-takes away value of following deontological rules. cant earn salvation
-god outside of time so he witnesses decisions not causes the,
