Determinism

For centuries, people have argued about free will's existence, whether our actions are predetermined, freely chosen, or a mixture of the two. However, the concept of 'free will' itself must first be examined. What does free will actually mean? Generally, it can be agreed that free will is simply the ability for someone's will to be acted upon freely, without compulsion. For example, if someone forces you to take your jacket off, it was not a free-will decision to do so. But what is will? Will does not equate with desires. For example, an alcoholic may want to quit, he wills it, but finds his bodily desires overpowering his will.

So then what is will? What does it mean to will something? To desire it, not in the body but in the mind? As if the body has independent desires from the mind, acting as two independent agents. There is the mind's desires and the body's desires, and they conflict (perhaps multiple parts of the psyche, id ego superego, etc.). So, we can indeed by compelled by our own desires to act against our own will. But then, if our will and body are in alignment, but the body acts according to the body's desires and not the mind's desires, the will, are we not also compelled? Compelled to act in a way we wish, yes, but compelled nonetheless.

It is plain that acting according to our will is simply compelling our body to act according to our mind's desires. In this sense, free-will can exist exist perfectly fine. However, these results require further inquiry. The question of determinism is whether or not these desires of the mind originate from the mind, the will itself, or from outside factors. If it comes from the outside, then this is perhaps a form of compulsion. Something external compelling your actions, but simply in a more roundabout way.

What is desire then, how do desires manifest? Desires plainly all are reactions to external stimuli. To desire is to react. If someone desires food when they are hungry, they are reacting to their hunger. One may desire to be stronger when they are weak, so they are reacting to their inability. Desire is simply wanting something you do not have, it necessarily must be a reaction. The manifestation of a desire only occurs in reaction to external events.

And how do these desires come about in the first place, what triggers the reaction to events? A man who is overweight may or may not desire to become thinner. He can either be satisfied, or he can not be satisfied with his weight. What determines his reaction? Well, we would only desire to change something if we believe the change to be beneficial for in some sense, even if only to assert our own free-will. But our conceptions on what things are beneficial, what qualities are important in a person, etc. are determined by things such as social pressures and norms, learned behaviors from past experiences, or genetic inclinations. In other words, we react to outside events based on desires, which themselves are caused by our reactions to previous outside events. If our desires and our will are created by external factors, it is not our will, and not our choice. We do not have the will to act.

Does this mean that we have no responsibility for our actions, that we cannot be punished? No, not at all. The people who have the learned behaviors and tendencies to commit crimes like murders and rapes should not be allowed in society, to prevent these harmful tendencies from manifesting. Though the actions are determined, we cannot see the future, and so generally err on the side of caution. Prisons have a corrective effect, because prison inherently instills additional learned behaviors in people that will hopefully influence their behavior in ways to stop them from committing future offenses. Rehabilitation isn't about changing people's will, but adding to the learned experiences that determine people's actions.

How does this tie in with God's will, faith, and sin? Well, similar to prison, even though we are compelled to sin by our environment, we still have committed sins and have the personality of a sinner, sinful nature, so we face condemnation. Not because we bear the personal, free-will responsibility, but because we are simply the ones who have carried these actions out.

Is God's will sovereign then, or compelled? God's will is the only one that is indeed truly sovereign and its own. Being totally isolated from all material constraints and influences, given that God exists outside of time and space, God is the only one compelled solely by his own will.

The idea of actions being determined by our environment, and God having created this environment, lead easily into the ideas of election and pre-destination, which developed out of the Bible and not out of the enlightenment, which is where hard determinism comes from. In other words, the theological basis for hard determinism precedes the philosophical basis of the concept. As for scriptures specifically, there are various verses speaking of God pre-destining and choosing, foreknowing ations.

Romans 8:30

1 Peter 1:2

The specific contexts of the verses do not matter, only the specific wordage in the passages. Predestined, by God. In other words, compelled, it not being a choice. But the Bible also clearly shows examples of people coming to faith not through random instances, but through miracles or great works, such as the jailer at Philippi. Are these two compatible? People seemingly coming to faith through actions based on people's choices, such as Paul's decision to stay, yet still being predestined to faith? This is only possible if free will does not exist, and all of our choices are, in fact, predestined. This can be further supported by Romans 11:36

As well as Job 2:10

And finally Psalm 33:11

All things come from God, good or evil, because God created the universe and all things within it. God created the universe in the precise way that would generate the universe in the way it developed. Many equate this to the big bang, and the big bang theory itself was created by a priest and initially denounced by scientists as being creationist. Still, the theory fits perfectly within a framework of God's plan, and if anything it works as an even greater demonstration of God's power. God was able to create the universe in a precise manner, billions of years ago, with all natural processes that led exactly to humanity developing in the manner it did.

This is how foreknowledge works, in a certain way. All actions will play out exactly as intended by God's design. We all act according to our circumstances, circumstances provided and created by God. God knows exactly what actions we will take, because God is the one who has created those conditions leading to the actions. In a sense, we are merely actors in a play, and we have our part to carry out.

Very controversially, but necessarily, those who run against God's will are still obeying God's will, but only insofar as they obey God's plan, because they have no way to stray from the plan. They are still punished, but this is no injustice. This is merely the lot that they were given, to be condemned for their sins. Despite being compelled by their environment, they still did carry out those actions, whether they have the direct responsibility or not. The action was still commenced, with them as the agent.

The idea of free-will only exists for people who cannot see into the future, for those constrained in time. If they cannot see the future, their actions appear undetermined, and so the idea of free-will manifests. This is an illusion, created only from our inability to exist in any time but the present.

For God, being not constrained by neither time nor space, the entirety of all time can be experienced at once. All things, past, present, and future, are seen simultaneously. Time is merely a dimension of space, a fourth dimension, space-time. For a being not constrained by physical space such as God, not being constrained by time is a natural consequence. God exists outside of time, and views all things however desired.

Moreover, all things exist in multiple different places, just at different times. This is purely deterministic. A rock dropped from a roof will fall, because it is compelled to by its environment by material conditions. But the moment that the rock was released, it had already hit the ground, but just at a different moment in the future. The time perceived by humans simply had not reached that moment in time. We process time in one direction, one moment at a time. We are not really developing new time and making events as we go, but merely passing through things that have already happened in the future.

Think of a train running along a track it cannot see. It appears as if new rails are manifesting behind the train, while the path not experienced is undetermined. But in reality, they simply cannot perceive and have not reached the rest of the track which is already laid out.

My car that I take to work in the morning is currently parked at home. But when I go to work, it will be in the parking lot of my workplace. It exists in this moment of time in my garage, and it exists in the future in the parking lot. It isn't that it will exist there, but it already does exist there, but I simply have not personally reached that moment of time yet. All things that will occur have already occurred, even if we have not reached the moment in time that they do. To an outside observer, a highway seems like a nonstop stream of near-misses, barely outside of each other's time.

For a being not constrained by the apparent linear flow of time, all things have already happened and can be freely observed. But to a human, constrained, things appear uncertain, undetermined, and thus the illusion of free will manifests. If all things can be seen in their past, present, and future state, no actions can be claimed to be 'free', but merely another link in the direct chain of cause-and-effect.

All things are in constant motion. A reaction to something causes another reaction, causing another reaction, forever. All events are merely reactions leading all the way to the creation of the universe. There are no independent actions in the universe, besides the first cause, the creation of the universe. The universe is more akin to a Rube Goldberg machine, with the first cause setting off a complex set of reactions.

In short, the idea of free-will is nonsensical and only exists as a response to man's inability to experience time in any way other than a constantly-progressing path. If all future events were known, it would be made clear that all actions are merely reactions to previous events, in an unbroken chain that begins with God's creation of the universe for his specific plan and will. God existing outside of material space and material influence means that his will is truly the only sovereign will, God is the only one with free-will. For all others, their actions are pre-determined according to God's plan.