Notes on Cosmological Argument, Free Will, and Boethius

Cosmological Argument

All things have a cause for existence.
The cause of existence of the beginning is God.
Example: Parents caused me, grandparents caused my parents, and so on, leading to the Big Bang, which was caused by God.
Everything in the universe has a cause and an effect.
- Example: Throwing a marker up causes it to fall down.

Chance vs. Cause and Effect

Chance: Describing something in a mysterious way, something we don't fully understand.
- Example: Winning the lottery or finding a pot of gold.
Even seemingly chance events have a cause and effect relationship.
- Finding a pot of gold: Someone put it there.
- Coin flip in football: Determined by the strength of the flip, air resistance, gravitational pull; we call it chance because we don't know the particular details.
Problem: If everything is driven by cause and effect, what does it say about our freedom and human will?

Free Will and Moral Responsibility

If everything is determined by cause and effect, then we have limited or no freedom.
If decisions are predetermined, how can we be morally responsible for our actions?
- Example: If someone commits a crime, they were determined to do it, so how can they be blamed?
- If you get an A in class, it's because you were determined to get an A.
Without free will, no one is to blame for their decisions.
In order to be morally responsible, we need to have free will.
Without Adam and Eve having free will, they cannot be morally responsible for eating the forbidden fruit, making God responsible.

Boethius and Foreknowledge

Boethius grapples with the question of free will in light of God's foreknowledge.
He explores different views about foreknowledge to determine which is best.

Three Views of Foreknowledge (that Boethius disagrees with)

A. What God foreknows will necessarily happen

Problem: This implies determinism, where we have no free will and cannot be morally responsible.
If everything will happen anyway, whatever decision we make is not a real choice but a predetermined event. We are determined to do it.

B. God's foreknowledge is broken if events deviate

*Hypothetical scenario:
* If I am god and foreknow that Doctor Fluffy (the cat) is going towards a stake (filet mignon), but doctor Fluffy doesn't go towards the stake.
* What does that say about my foreknowledge if it deviates?

If God's foreknowledge says that the cat is going to go towards the steak, but the cat doesn't do it then God's foreknowledge implies is just making opinions or guessing.
*If God is guessing, then he does not have God's foreknowledge.