Recently a young female college student opined that free will was an allusion. People react according to predetermined influences and are not free at all. Now it is true that mankind does not possess total free will. No one chooses to be born, or the culture in which one is born, or the genetics one inherits. But to suggest that mankind has no choice at all is strickly fatalism. Be it ever so limited, mankind has choices and is expected to function in life responsible for the choices made.
The potential for choice exists. There are outcomes from choices made that can bode well or ill for the decision maker and the immediate environs. Some issues dealing with free will or no free will might be contained in some of the following If...Then propositions.
If there is no free will...Then, One cannot be held accountable for the consequences of his/her actions.
If no free will...Then God is the cause of sin.
If no free will...Then everything would be morally neutral.
As a society we hold people accountable for their actions. Everything is not morally neutral. Evil does exist and the origin of such evil is not God.
Opinions like the one from the young college student are a product of mindset which desperately searches for ways to excuse behavior and escape the reality of truth. The familiar saying "What's true for you is not true for me" is the attempt to make truth relative and therefore non-binding. Try as one might, there is no escape from Truth and mankind will be held accountable for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment