CCEA Religion : Free will and determinism

What is free will?

the ability to make free, unhindered choices

What is determinism?

The idea that all actions governed by laws outside of our control

What is self determinism?

There are physical, psychological and social limits to personal autonomy. despite those limits, individuals have a good enough degree of freedom to take responsibility for our actions.

What is predestination?

the idea that God has a plan mapped out for you

What is hard determinism?

All choices are caused by other events and actions- free will is an illusion

What is libertarianism?

we are completely free and not determined in any way shape or form

What is soft determinism?

free will and determinism are compatible with each other- choices are predetermined by prior decisions

Biblical eg of free will

Matthew 16- when Jesus predicts his death, Peter responds ‘this shall never happen to you!’ Jesus answers ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ == Jesus was struggling but still had free will not to listen to Peter and to defy the expectations of the others

Biblical eg of determinism

Jesus’s prediction of his death / OT prophecies → Isaiah 53:4 - the suffering servant ‘took up our pains and bore our suffering’

What are libertarians

People who accept free will

St Paul quote

‘You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free’

Descartes quote

‘the will is, by nature, so free that it can never be constrained’

Camus quote

‘Either we are not free and God the all powerful is responsible for evil, or we are free and responsible’

Protestant beliefs

Some Protestant denominations believe in predestination / Calvin; ‘nothing happens but what the Lord willingly and knowingly decreed’

Catholic Church beliefs

Rejects predestination as factors can limit or diminish responsibility / Pope John Paul II : ‘grace comes from Christ’

Satre

Existentialist / ‘existence precedes essence’ / ‘we have no essence, we have nothing at our core, we are bound to nothing’ / ‘man is condemned to be free… he is responsible for everything he does’

Kant

believed that if people were not free, they could not make moral choices

Hard determinism

‘all events, includinf moral choices, are completely determined by previous existing causes’

Einstein quote

‘we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper’

John Locke’s locked room analogy

a man wakes up in a room that, unkown to him, is locked on the outside. he chooses to stay in the room, believing he has chose freely however he has no option but to stay inside.

Harris quotes

‘unconcious neural events determne our thoughts and actions’ / ‘no human being is responsible for his genes or his upbringing’

Freud’s beliefs

Psychological determinism- our minds are programmed by instructive structures to fulfill our basic desires. these are the id (immediate pleasure esp sexual), the super ego (social norms ad morals acquired through childhood), and the ego (the factor which balances reality, the id an superego)

Hume quotes

‘if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may’ / ‘has not everyone of consequence the free disposal of his own life?’

Mill quote

‘over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’

Dawkins quote

‘we have the power to deny the selfish genes of our birth’

Case of Mary Bell

11 years old / convicted of the manslaughter of Martin Brown and Brian Howe (4 and 3) / suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother, who was a prostitute, and her clients / psychiatrists deemed her ‘incapable of criminal intent’

Case of Sally Challen

killed her husband Richard Challen with a hammer to the head / had bipolar and adjustment disorder / judge said Challen controlled, isolated and humilated his wife