Fall 2007 Online Certificate Students:
View all sessions below. Then log all your comments, questions, discussion question answers, criticisms, or thoughts below.
NOTE: This is not the place for general discussion and questions. Go to the foyer for general discussion and refer to the FAQ on the right for question. Time spent in the comments section will apply toward your one hour of community time per week. To download audio sessions, visit the course homepage on the TTP site. The next session will be posted each Wed.
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Is there such a thing as Free Will? Part 1 [9:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download What are the different positions on Free Will? [14:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download What are the different Free Will views of responsibility? [11:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download What are the problems with the different views of Free Will? [7:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Is there such a thing as Free Will? Part 2 [10:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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October 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Out of town, so here are my answers to the questions this week:
1. I find free will very tough to define. I seem to particularly struggle with the “free” part of it. “Will” is easier for me to understand and wrap my brain around. It is what you are inclined to do. The free part is what is hard because, as Michael and Rhome pointed out, we live our lives as if if everyone is making completely free decisions in the sense at least that we hold them accountable for what they have done and except in certain circumstances always assume they were able to choose either side. Given that I see our nature as sinful, and the scales balanced against us in an Augustinian sense, I therefore define “Free Will” as follows: mankind is held responsible for their actions, and in some senses choose evil (even though they cannot choose good all the time), their choice was free.
2. I believe that libertarian freedom is not truly possible in the full sense. I believe that we cannot actually choose to always do good. We might be able to choose good briefly, but if we are honest we will usually choose evil without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We do have freedom however, in that we were not forced in a robotic sense to do evil, we know either at the moment or later that we are\were sinning.
3. Some of the outside factors in my life beyond my control are things like where I grew up and the church I attended as a child. For example, we moved across the country when I was in the 6th grade, and I had difficulty fitting in at our new church and my new school. This detrimentally affected how I viewed the church and some of my social interactions, and it took me many years to understand that the physical church is not necessarily the actual church, and that just because any particular people who called themselves Christian were unkind, did not mean God did not love me.
4. I did not have true freedom in the sense that I did not, and likely still do not, have the whole picture of any of the situations I was in at the time. I did choose to act in the sinful ways I did though, I chose to turn away when I could have turned towards God even more. In the end I learned a deeper lesson and can, in some limited way, see more of the big picture and therefore do not feel cheated or done-wrong by being in this situation. In some way I think we will all someday (in the end times?) see the justice of the situations we were in and then how God was not treating us unfairly.
5. If choices are arbitrary, then one would not care if the choice was made either way. In fact, arbitrary implies to me a lack of connection or investment in the decision itself, meaning that the results of your action could not be attributed as “good” or “bad”. You are then not really influencing the outcome; you are just tossing dice and leaving the outcome up to chance. Since you are not truly choosing, you are not in essence free, you are at the whims of chance. This all presupposes that chance exists, as opposed to the idea that every single breeze or coin flip is directed by God.
6. I think the confusion goes back to the first question, what is meant by free. If by free we mean that although influenced, we still decided ourselves to pursue the course of action we undertook, then we are responsible for these actions even though we are free. I must say however that this seems to put a layer of indirection between us and the cause; highlighting the difficulty with saying we have true liberty to choose either choice. I believe we never have equal scales when it comes to free decisions, we always have influences and therefore libertarianism does not exist except perhaps for God himself.
7. This is the part I do not understand, as it seems that with all things in the Universe being created and directed by God, nothing is free in some sense. Yet we know that we are not God, he created us with some independence from him and sinse we are independent , we are accountable for what we do (otherwise we are not independent and just fade into God…). I’m not sure why he set it up this way, maybe it reminds us that we are not God.
8. My thinking was challenged in that I did not understand the difference between libertarianism and free will in general. I still find this very difficult to tease apart, and feel I have in some senses just pushed the issue a layer deeper, in that now I don’t know why we have enough self-direction to be responsible, but not enough to equally choose (as God does). As I mentioned in the last question, perhaps that is because the only person who has no external influences is God himself. I, at some level, understand the distinction between liberty & freedom, and our responsibility for our actions even though the bigger why question is perhaps an issue my little human brain cannot understand.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
H & S Session 8
1. After this lesson, I would define free will as the ability to make choices within our ability and God’s sovereignty.
2. My immediate thought is that Libertarianism seems necessary in order to have true free will and responsibility for our actions. But the more I think about it, the less I think it’s possible, because we are not blank slates, even at birth. We are always limited by God’s sovereignty, as well as influences from our natural temperament, place of birth, family of origin, other people’s behavior etc.
3. A couple of examples of outside factors beyond my control:
• Being female, I have a different perspective than males in some ways
• I was born and raised in New York City. You can’t really generalize, but being from a large, fast-paced, heterogeneous city affects your worldview and personality differently than someone from a rural area, for example. Not better or worse, just different.
4. You don’t have true freedom because you can’t control outside factors and those do shape your choices. But, we do still have freedom to respond to the outside factors in ways that honor God.
5. I don’t think arbitrary choices are truly free. Even if something is arbitrary it seems there is still something driving the choice. Otherwise, we would just be in neutral all the time and I’m not sure that is possible for humans.
6. I do believe we make free choices and it is clear that we are responsible for our choices. Since God is holding us accountable, then we must have the ability to choose. God would not be just if He were to punish us for behavior we have no control over. Since God is just, I feel that He will judge us based on our hearts and individual circumstances and abilities.
7. If God placed us in certain circumstances, we still have a choice in how we respond. Even though we’re limited to a degree by our circumstances and nature, there is still a range of responses within those limitations that are better choices.
8. After this session, I have a much better understanding of what it means to have free will.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Humanity & Sin Session 8
Discussion Question #1
Free will is the opportunity to choose according to our nature under the sovereignty of God.
Discussion Question #2
No, not since going through this lesson. I do not believe that God continually adjusts the scales with every choice we make. I must admit that before going through this lesson I would probably have said that Libertarianism is what I believed.
Discussion Question #3
My parents and my family are a couple of outside factors that have had quite an influence on whom I have become. My parents continually brought the values of truth, honesty and accountability into our family discussions. In turn my husband and I have done the same with our family.
Discussion Question #4
You have the freedom to choose, but your choices are within your factors of influence. You cannot choose from something that you do not know of. We are people of interactions and connections. There is no way to deny that we make choices according to our experiences.
Discussion Question #5
No, arbitrary is a haphazard by nature. Choice means to make an intended decision, not simply being inactive.
Discussion Question #6
Yes, I do agree. That is where our freewill lies. We have the opportunity to follow the will of God or not to. Therefore, we are accountable for the choices we make.
Discussion Question #7
It is because of God’s mercy that he puts the fault to man. If it were not so, then we could not be given the salvation through the Second Adam, Jesus Christ.
Discussion Question #8
The discussion of free will still eludes my complete understanding. It seems so simple on the surface, but the complexity lies narrowly underneath. As in most of these classes, there is so much more to these topics than what is first thought. I can’t tell you how many times I thought I believed or understood something only to be more confused by the depth of discussion.