As far as the case against free will is concerned I truly believe that human beings have no free will at all. I believe that our free will totally lies in the hands of God. Our lives have already pre determined which means God has already set out the course for our lives granted we do his will. We are powerless to change or to alter any thing; events will still unfold in the way they were meant to no matter what we do about it which is what is known as fatalism. People who disagree with these theories will probably say that we have free will as humans and our fate totally lies in our own hands, they would also argue that saying that we do not have free will is just trying to find an excuse for the poor decisions that we make. As far as our destiny is concerned we as humans can only control very little, whenever we make plans for the future there’s really no guarantee as to whether what we have planned for the future is really going to happen. How many times in our lives do we make plans to the best of ability using our free will, which is just basically the best judgment at particular moment, some things will just not happen no matter what we do about it, it is just a fact we cant run away from.
All this goes back to the same thing, if you try to explain this from a Christian point of view, God creates plan for each life, from the time you are formed in your Mothers womb God knows everything about you and your life he already has everything planned out. Our free will as humans only goes as far as us making what seems to be best decision at any given moment, then again that decision we make may not have the outcome we were hoping for. Either way no matter what we do Fate will always catch up with us and events will turn to unfold in the way in which they were meant to unfold. There is no one out there who can say that they planned everything that has happened to them from the time they were born to this day. Our fate lies in the hands of God and we can only hope that whatever plans he has for our lives are good.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Blog#5
As I have been doing my research about the Case against free will, a very interesting question seems to be coming up. Where does free will actually come from? Does God give us free will? Do we as humans have the ultimate power to decide on our own or is their higher power that decides our fate. For those who say free will comes from God it means you taking a Christian view on the whole issue, by this I mean living a Christian life and waiting for Gods plan to unfold for you life. Another view is that humans are just naturally born with free will and have the ultimate power to decide their won destiny by the decisions they make and whatever plans they make for their lives. Based on the information we have at a particular time we are able to make the best choice on whatever decision we have to make. So in short I believe this issue starts with the beliefs that you have as an individual, fundamental principles on which you live your life. That’s the only way you are going to understand where your free will comes from
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Blog#4
My topic is the Case against free will and I feel the following terms are the most important and relevant terms to my topic
Determinism
Fatalism
Pre destination
Omnipotent
Determinism-this states that all events have been determined by prior events. Its also the doctrine that all events are the inevitable result of antecedent conditions, and that the human being in acts of apparent choice, it’s the mechanical expression of his heredity and his past environment.
http/www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
Fatalism- this is the notion that no matter what we do as human beings events will unfold in the way in which they were meant to, no choice or act of an individual can change his fate. Fatalism almost if not entirely suggests that we have no free will at all, because no matter what we do events will still unfold in a destined manner. Another definition is that fatalism is a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are pre destined in advance for all times and human beings are powerless to change them.
http/www.wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Pre-destination- there several definitions for pre destination but the best definition comes a Biblical stand point, so from a Biblical point of view pre destination means that from the time of creation God had pre destined the fate of the universe and that if people followed a certain path which is a Christian life he promised great things. Another definition is that everything is pre destined meaning that Gods knows everything before it happens.
http/www.wikipedia.org/wiki/predestination
Omnipotent-This is another term that can be defined best from a Christian point of view, Omnipotent means one that is all knowing, so since the Bible says that God is Omnipotent so knows everything that will happen even before we do it. He has everything planned out for us from our birth, we can only hope and pray that whatever plans God has for us are good.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotent
Determinism
Fatalism
Pre destination
Omnipotent
Determinism-this states that all events have been determined by prior events. Its also the doctrine that all events are the inevitable result of antecedent conditions, and that the human being in acts of apparent choice, it’s the mechanical expression of his heredity and his past environment.
http/www.willdurant.com/glossary.htm
Fatalism- this is the notion that no matter what we do as human beings events will unfold in the way in which they were meant to, no choice or act of an individual can change his fate. Fatalism almost if not entirely suggests that we have no free will at all, because no matter what we do events will still unfold in a destined manner. Another definition is that fatalism is a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are pre destined in advance for all times and human beings are powerless to change them.
http/www.wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Pre-destination- there several definitions for pre destination but the best definition comes a Biblical stand point, so from a Biblical point of view pre destination means that from the time of creation God had pre destined the fate of the universe and that if people followed a certain path which is a Christian life he promised great things. Another definition is that everything is pre destined meaning that Gods knows everything before it happens.
http/www.wikipedia.org/wiki/predestination
Omnipotent-This is another term that can be defined best from a Christian point of view, Omnipotent means one that is all knowing, so since the Bible says that God is Omnipotent so knows everything that will happen even before we do it. He has everything planned out for us from our birth, we can only hope and pray that whatever plans God has for us are good.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotent
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Blog#3
In this video he is able to explain all the different aspects of free will and how they are connected to each other. He explains the components that encompass free will which are Determinism, predestination and Fatalism. In this video he gives examples of scenarios which show where free will would come into play. Basically he is trying to say the different aspects of free come into play as a result of the situations that we are faced with at a particular time. He talks about the kind of decisions we make and how they all have an effect on our free will, he says ethics are a part of a belief system and when us as humans are faced with certain situations we are naturally meant to act in a certain way which basically wouldn’t be called pre destination or fatalism. He is basically saying we would do whatever seems to be the best option at that time
A good example would be if a Gun is put to your head you will not just stand there and wait for fate or pre destination to take its course. You will do whatever it takes to come out of this situation in a safe manner. He explains how all these aspects of free will play a role in the daily situations we are faced with.
A good example would be if a Gun is put to your head you will not just stand there and wait for fate or pre destination to take its course. You will do whatever it takes to come out of this situation in a safe manner. He explains how all these aspects of free will play a role in the daily situations we are faced with.
Blog#2
I have chosen the Case Against Free Will because to me this seems to be the most interesting chapter in the book, I have also wanted to go in depth on the subject and this will give me on opportunity. Its very worrying when you watch trials and see people get away with serious crimes simply with an excuse of them not knowing what they were doing or saying they had no control over the situation, this brings us back to this question of free will, or we really in control over it? I personally believe we are but others may think otherwise.
I decided to start my research with the question does free will actually exist? God is all knowing, well at least that’s what the Bible says. God knows everything that will happen before it happens, with this argument some scholars have said there is no free will because God already knows what will happen or what you will say before any of these things even happen. Well from a personal point of view I believe God does know the future and he knows our hearts desires. I believe whatever plans he has for us all good because he has our best interests at heart. So I started by learning that the existence of God questions free will.
http/www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskild/intro/free%20will.htm
I have learned a lot of interesting things about free will as I have researched more and more about the topic, but in my search I have come across something that has literally blown my mind, this is the apparent conflict between predestination and free will. This is an argument that our lives are already predestined so whether we incorporate free will into it, whatever we do either good or bad was going to happen anyway regardless of our free will.
http/www.reason4living.com/articles/totw0017.htm
I decided to start my research with the question does free will actually exist? God is all knowing, well at least that’s what the Bible says. God knows everything that will happen before it happens, with this argument some scholars have said there is no free will because God already knows what will happen or what you will say before any of these things even happen. Well from a personal point of view I believe God does know the future and he knows our hearts desires. I believe whatever plans he has for us all good because he has our best interests at heart. So I started by learning that the existence of God questions free will.
http/www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskild/intro/free%20will.htm
I have learned a lot of interesting things about free will as I have researched more and more about the topic, but in my search I have come across something that has literally blown my mind, this is the apparent conflict between predestination and free will. This is an argument that our lives are already predestined so whether we incorporate free will into it, whatever we do either good or bad was going to happen anyway regardless of our free will.
http/www.reason4living.com/articles/totw0017.htm
Blog#1
The Case against free will
This chapter interests me the most because it deals with issues I have always had questions about. Where does free will come from? I as a Christian believe that free will comes from God. I say free will comes from God because he has already given us the ability to distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong. One of the most interesting aspects of this chapter is the questions that are people responsible for what they do. This is very interesting because am sure at one time or another everybody has done something and said they didn’t mean to do it or that they had no control over it. I personally think everybody has free will and it comes from God, free will gives us the ability to know whether what we are doing is wrong or right.
Why should we be Moral?
This is another very interesting chapter because it deals with some of the problems that we deal with on a daily basis. What really defines morality today? Is morality based on Ethics and religion or people simply being moral because others watch what they do? In the story the Ring of Gyges, when he puts on the ring he is able to become invisible and basically do whatever he wants. How many people out there today who not take advantage of such a thing. It hard to really distinguish what really defines the moral code of conduct, from a Christian point of view I would say its doing what the Bible says. But then we also have the social contract we comes from a very neutral point of view, when you at ethics from this point the moral code of conduct of a human might be seen as selfish I say so because humans might be looked at as always trying to satisfy their personal needs and wants.
This chapter interests me the most because it deals with issues I have always had questions about. Where does free will come from? I as a Christian believe that free will comes from God. I say free will comes from God because he has already given us the ability to distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong. One of the most interesting aspects of this chapter is the questions that are people responsible for what they do. This is very interesting because am sure at one time or another everybody has done something and said they didn’t mean to do it or that they had no control over it. I personally think everybody has free will and it comes from God, free will gives us the ability to know whether what we are doing is wrong or right.
Why should we be Moral?
This is another very interesting chapter because it deals with some of the problems that we deal with on a daily basis. What really defines morality today? Is morality based on Ethics and religion or people simply being moral because others watch what they do? In the story the Ring of Gyges, when he puts on the ring he is able to become invisible and basically do whatever he wants. How many people out there today who not take advantage of such a thing. It hard to really distinguish what really defines the moral code of conduct, from a Christian point of view I would say its doing what the Bible says. But then we also have the social contract we comes from a very neutral point of view, when you at ethics from this point the moral code of conduct of a human might be seen as selfish I say so because humans might be looked at as always trying to satisfy their personal needs and wants.
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