LOOK! NO GOD! |
Free Will, Predestination and the SoulWe both have and don't have free will, depending on how it is defined. Even if we have a soul, our actions are largely out of our hands and we can't change our destiny after death. The idea of a soul doesn't make total sense, so the materialist view of the world is more likely the correct one. |
Free WillStanding on the footpath, I am completely free to choose whether to cross the road: I have total free will.
The universe is made of subatomic particles which interact in ways that can be largely predicted by the laws of physics. As humans we cannot alter that – we can’t make two electrons attract each other through an act of will. Quantum considerations do add a little bit of uncertainty to the interactions. For instance, we cannot predict which slit an electron will pass through in the double-slit experiment. But then neither can we affect it. We have no control over the random wave function collapses that make it unpredictable – the only things (by the physical model) that are not set in stone before they happen. In that sense, we have no control over the way the universe will pan out. The universe will evolve through time in a given way determined only by its particle interactions. Being part of that universe, we evolve with it and therefore we evolve in a given way. Part of that evolution is the particle interactions in our brains which manifest as our minds, our thoughts, our consciousness. And part of that is the decisions we make. Our decisions are not always forced upon us by external constraints (e.g. someone making us to go a certain way), and in that sense we have free will. But they are always forced upon us by internal constraints (our particles), and in that sense we have no free will. If we are standing by the road deciding whether to cross or stay where we are, only one course of action is possible, though we won’t know which one, and we will feel like we have both options open to us. But what is going to happen with our particles is going to happen. No act of will independent of our particles can affect that. Life is going to be what it is going to be. Viewed as part of the 4-dimensional spacetime picture of the universe, it is a given. All we can do is go along for the ride. When we go on a roller coaster, we go where it takes us. No act of will on our part will make it go anywhere else. But we still enjoy the ride. Life is the same. We can still enjoy the ride – those bits that are enjoyable anyway.
And there is no need to feel bad about anything that we or anyone else has done: things couldn’t have happened any other way. So, to summarise . . . Do I have free will to cross the road or to not cross? No one and nothing outside of me is forcing me to cross or not cross. So I have free will in the sense that there are no external constraints on me. But I am totally constrained by the state of my atoms, a state which depends on my make-up, my past experience and what I perceive around me. So I have no free will in the sense that there are internal constraints on me that totally determine my actions. Both statements (that I have free will and that I don't have free will) are true, depending on whether one is considering just external constraints or internal constraints as well. A SoulOf course, the above would not necessarily be true if there is a part of us which is independent of our particles, and which can change the actions of the particles (and hence the firings of our neurons) in ways not compatible with the laws of physics as we see them. That is what a soul or spirit would have to do. Most humans over history have assumed that there is this second part to us. This soul, rather than our atoms, would be what makes our decisions. Not being dependent upon our atoms, such a soul could survive after bodily death. Those who believe in an independent soul generally also see consciousness as a property of the soul rather than of the physical brain. This would mean that consciousness could continue after death in a meaningful afterlife.
Most of those who believe in the soul and an afterlife believe that the afterlife is under the control of a god. The god has control over our souls after death and can assign them to various places. In some eastern belief systems, the soul is either re-assigned to another body, or it is united with the spiritual universe or god in an everlasting state of blissful oneness, the fate depending on how one behaved in the previous life. In Christianity and Islam, the soul is assigned to a place of bliss or a place of torture, depending not so much on how one behaved in this world as on what one believed. In nearly every case, there is an assumption that the soul has free will and can choose to make the body behave or the mind believe in the way required for heavenly reward or can choose not to. So the soul would be responsible for the choice it makes and it would deserve whatever are the consequences of that choice. This idea, however, is at odds with what we observe. People whose parents are good people and people who are brought up well tend to be good people, whereas those with bad parents and bad upbringings have a better chance of turning out bad. In the same way, people brought up in the US tend to believe the Christian story, while those brought up in Pakistan tend to believe the Islamic story and those brought up in India are more likely to have Hindu beliefs. This suggests that the soul is influenced by the genetics of the body with which it is associated and by the environment in which that body lives. As such, the soul is not independent of the particles which make up the body and the universe. Such a soul does not have total free will. But it could still be argued that it has partial free will. This element of free-will is manifested as a tendency to be good or bad, to have faith or to be unbelieving. However, genetic and environmental factors can influence it one way or the other. The genetic and environmental factors are beyond the control of the soul, so any reward or punishment should be assigned purely on the soul's tendency to be good or bad, faithful or infidel. We might call a soul that tends to be good or faithful 'a good soul' and a soul that tends to be bad or to lack faith 'a bad soul'. The problem then is that we have no say in whether we are given a good soul or a bad soul (or maybe we should say whether we are a good soul or we are a bad soul). The soul does not have free will in choosing its nature, and hence its eternal destiny (reward or punishment). Therefore, one would think, it does not deserve the consequences of its behaviour or beliefs, especially if the consequence is an eternity of unbearable torture. All in all, therefore, the idea of a soul, doesn't make total sense. At the very least, it couldn't be the creation of a god with any degree of fairness or compassion. Even if we do have a soul, we have the one we were given, good or bad, already destined for heaven or for hell, and there is nothing we can do to change its fate. So there's no real point in worrying about it or trying to do anything about it. What the Bible SaysThe bible actually agrees with this view. It tends to see God in his absolute sovereignty as controlling everything that happens, good and bad, and humans having no say in it: we are just puppets. Phil 2:13   for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Acts 4: 28   They did what your power and will decided beforehand should happen. Ro 9:19   One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” John 12:40   He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn — and I would heal them. Josh 11:20   For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy Ex 7:3   But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Isa 46:10-11   I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do. Isa 45:7   I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things These verses confirm the idea that even a person's soul has no free will. So, whether one takes the materialistic view that we are just atoms or the Christian view that we have a soul, the inescapable conclusion is that we have no free will and no control over our actions or future. If there is a god, we are predestined for either bliss or torture and nothing we can do will change our destiny. Reform TheologyReform theology, or Calvinism, reflects these ideas. It is the view that God decides before we are born whether we will be saved and go to heaven or damned and thrown into hell, and that, whatever we do, we cannot change our fate. This is the theology of much of Christendom. The following are some further bible verses on which reform theology is based. Eph 1:5   For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will Ro 9:15-21   For he says to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or compassion, but on God’s mercy . . . . Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. Who are you O man to talk back to God? . . . . Shall what is formed say to him who formed it ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Doesn’t the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? John 6:37   All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. John 6:44   No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. Eph 1: 11   In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will Eph 1: 4   For he chose us in him before the creation of the world Eph 2:8   For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God Ro 8:28-30   We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Acts 2:38-39   And you will receive the gift of the holy spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. Acts 13:48   Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Ro 9:9-13   (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." Ro 11:29   For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 1 Pe 1:2   who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father Titus 1:1   for the faith of God's elect Jonah 2:9   Salvation comes from the Lord. Islam AgreesIslam also sees God as absolutely sovereign and deciding everything that happens. It is the belief of Muslims that 'Everything is done by Allah's command and nothing else without it.' Quran 59:23   He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. One of the articles of faith of Sunni Islam is God's control over everything that happens in the universe—including sinful human behavior and who will go to hell. Further Arguments against the Existence of a SoulA growing number of people nowadays (including most scientists) consider that there is no such part of us as a soul and that we are in fact no more than bunches of atoms. They see consciousness as being the result of the chemical and electrical activity of the brain. This idea would mean that most of the world is wrong in their fundamental understanding of existence. Can that be possible? Well, 2500 years ago almost everyone in the world was a pagan, believing in a whole pantheon of gods each of which controlled some aspect of nature and which often competed with, fought with and killed one another. So, yes, it does seem that almost everyone can be wrong. The existence of a soul, an afterlife and a god cannot be proved or disproved, so we just have to go by what seems most likely. The materialist view that we are just atoms seems, for many reasons, to be the most likely. Below are some further considerations which might have an impact on our thoughts about this. The first - Anaesthetic Most people who believe that we do have a soul consider it to be the seat of our consciousness. This of course is necessary if our consciousness is to continue after death in an afterlife. The soul could not be controlled by the atoms in our brains because, if it were, it would essentially be subject to the same laws of physics that control those atoms and would cease to function when the brain decomposes. However, a general anaesthetic, which just alters the chemistry and electrical activity of the brain, can eliminate consciousness.
This strongly suggests that consciousness is an emergent property of this chemical and electrical activity rather than a property of an independent soul. If impairing the brain can eliminate consciousness, then we won't be conscious after death. Even if we did continue to exist in some form, it wouldn't matter because we wouldn't know about it. Alzheimer's in the same way is a gradual degeneration of the brain which leads to a parallel degeneration of consciousness and indeed the self. This too suggests that consciousness is a property of the brain rather than of a soul. The second - Divine Intervention Most people who believe in a god believe that it can predict and intervene in worldly affairs. The deterministic physical model of the world doesn't, on the face of it, allow this. Though, maybe the god could adjust the unpredictable quantum outcomes in ways that change the way the universe evolves so as to fit with its wishes. Such control might be achievable without breaking the laws of physics. The question is: Is there enough leeway in quantum uncertainty to allow such changes? Maybe to change people’s minds if they are ambivalent, yes, though maybe not to perform miracle cures, part the Red Sea, move mountains, produce a virgin birth, make a woman from a bone pulled out of a man, get a snake to talk etc. Of course the god could override the laws of physics occasionally, maybe just when we're not looking. The third - Split Brains Quite a few people have had the corpus callosum cut. This is a bundle of about 200 million neurons which connect the left and right cerebral hemispheres. This was found to be a generally effective way of preventing serious and frequent epileptic seizures that couldn't be controlled by medication. The two hemispheres have different functions. The left hemisphere senses and controls the right half of the body and vice versa. The left hemisphere receives the visual stimulus from the left half of one's field of view and the right hemisphere receives the stimulus from the right half. Speech is controlled almost exclusively by the left hemisphere, though the right hemisphere can understand what it is told and can read and so can answer questions by pointing to words or objects with the left hand. Spatial thinking and facial recognition are largely right-hemisphere functions.
Once the corpus callosum has been cut, both sides can still function in their own way, but they are not aware of what the other side is doing. So if the patient is shown a hammer in their left-side field of view they can say that they saw a hammer, but if shown just to their right side, they will say they saw nothing. However, their left hand can then draw a hammer or pick one out from a collection of objects. The two sides seem to have independent awareness or consciousness. In some situations, it is clear that the two sides have conflicting intentions with the result that the left hand tries to oppose what the right hand is doing. They can even have different beliefs. In one person, the left side claimed to be an atheist while the right side believed in God. The first 9 minutes of the YouTube video Split-Brain Patients and the Unity of Consciousness | Documentary go through these ideas and provide more detail. It is as if the split-brain patient has two independent minds and two independent consciousnesses. One could be Christian and the other not. If the Christian story is correct, then half of the person would be going to heaven while the other half would be going to hell. This makes nonsense of the idea that each person has a soul with a defined fate, a required assumption of the Christian position (and also of the position of most other religions). So How Shoud We Live?To me (and probably to most people), the two most likely scenarios are: 1. We don't have a soul and there is no god and no life after death. 2: We do have a soul and there is a god and a life after death, the pleasantness of which will depend on what we do in this life. From the above, it would seem that Scenario 1 is the more likely case. If it is, then we might as well just live this life the best we can. According to the article 'Purpose', that means producing as much pleasure as we can, for ourselves and others. But let's consider the possibility that Scenario 2 is the case. As the afterlife is likely to be a lot longer than this one, and as the different options there are very different in terms of their pleasantness, then it might seem that our best option in this life is to do what we can to make the next life the best possible. The trouble is that there are numerous different views on what is necessary to guarantee a pleasant afterlife and they are largely mutually exclusive – each saying that the others are false and will only lead to damnation. None of these religions stand out as more feasible than the others, so we have no way of knowing which if any of them is correct and therefore which to follow. One can only follow one religion and, even if one of them is correct, the probability of choosing it seems to be very small. Thus it seems not really to be worth making the sacrifices that would be necessary to follow any religion. "SouthPark - I'm afraid the mormons were the correct answer" on YouTube I personally was indoctrinated into christianity as a child and looked in detail at fundamental evangelical Christianity of my own accord as an adult. I immersed myself in it and got involved with people who followed it. My exposure showed me that there are many things about the religion which do not make good sense, which are seemingly self-contradictory and which are not what one would expect if it were a true account of reality. From what I know of other religions, none of them are any better. However, I sometimes had an intuitive feeling that Christianity was the truth - a feeling which went against my logical reasoning. The Christian threat of hell seemed more real than the threats from other religions. It was of course possible that this was purely a psychological phenomenon resulting from my immersion in the Christian faith since childhood. I decided to test this by immersing myself to some extent in another religion. I spoke with Muslims and read the Quran. This resulted in my developing the same intuitive feeling that Islam was the truth that I had had about Chritianity and the same fear of the Islamic version of hell. After this, I saw all religions more on an equal footing and so was more confident that none of them was true. Further, consideration of reform ideas makes it seem that, even if the Christian story is right, following Christianity still won’t guarantee that I will be spared the torment of hell. My adult Christian experience was in baptist churches whose theology was Arminian, meaning that salvation is open to anyone who chooses to avail themselves of it by accepting Christ. However, my own reading of the bible did not seem to bear this out. It did indeed seem that some are chosen before birth for salvation and others are chosen before birth for damnation in hell (the Calvinism described above) and that no one can do anything to alter their fate. If I’m not one of the lucky ones, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it – no amount of effort, trying to believe or being good will save me. The bible promises that certain things will happen to us once we are saved. Even though I thought I had gone through the process required for salvation, these things never seemed to happen, so I had to conclude that I’m not one of the lucky ones. Furthermore, according to the bible, salvation is by faith (Ephesians 2:8) and faith requires certainty, not doubt (Hebrews 11:1, James 1:6). Despite praying for faith over many years, it never came, reinforcing the conclusion that I was not saved. This inability to have faith fits with bible verses like Ephesians 2:8: 'For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' Thus, even if there is a soul, a god and an afterlife and even if the Christian story is correct, it would seem that it's already decided whether I'm going to heaven or hell and there is nothing I can do to change my fate. So I might as well not worry about it and enjoy this life the best I can.
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Image Acknowledgements Crossing the road: Kenneth Allen on Geograph.ie |