Re: [asa] God, Chance and Purpose

> But I would still maintain that if a person's actions are totally and
> infallibly predictable, then that person is not free. They might have the
> perception of freedom, but it isn't real.

This gets back to the question of what is free will. I don't see any
particular connection between predictability and free will, as I think
of the latter as whether or not you are free to do as you want. What
you want might be predictable or not. It is not easy to predict which
dinosaur Timothy will be next, in part because there are many options;
in part because some aspects of a three-year-old's cogitation are hard
to follow even if it is determinate, and in part there is his freedom
to decide.

The traditional Calvinist view is that we are free to do what we will,
but that our wills are not free-they are inherently inclined to sin.
However, the focus is primarily on whether we, of our own initiative,
choose to follow Christ, rather than on whether we might possibly be
freely choosing between error A and error B.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.