RE: [asa] God, Chance and Purpose

I believe it is the supernatural in us that is doing the free willing. It mediates the mind and body and so solves the mind/body problem.

 
Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Kirk Bertsche
Sent: Mon 6/9/2008 11:23 AM
To: Brian Harper
Cc: AmericanScientificAffiliation Affiliation; George Murphy
Subject: Re: [asa] God, Chance and Purpose

I would suggest that this would not negate "free will", but would only show that someone's "free will" is predictable.

Our definition and understanding of "free will" is crucial to discussions like these, and is often not well defined. There are a number of different understandings in Christendom and in culture. I believe Erasmus' view involved some idea of arbitrariness or ability to make contrary choice, and Luther argued against this in "Bondage of the Will" (maybe George Murphy can add some insight here?) Perhaps a good definition might be "the ability to choose as one desires". But this implies that one's desires may restrict the free choices that he will actually make, and that one's free choice may well be predictable by someone who understands his desires.

Kirk

On Jun 7, 2008, at 6:37 PM, Brian Harper wrote:

        At 05:29 PM 6/6/2008, Kirk Bertsche wrote:
        

                FYI, this is essentially the same analogy that Millard Erickson uses in his "Christian Theology" (except he uses chocolate cake vs liver and onions). His point, like David's, is that God can know us well enough to be certain of what we will choose even though we have a completely free choice.
                
                Kirk
                

        Okay, let me propose a thought experiment. Suppose you and I got together and observed David over a long period of time. We took our observations and, with the help of a developed model and a super computer, were able predict every thing that David did. What he ate for breakfast, what color shirt he wore on Tuesday etc. etc. What would you conclude about David? That he has free will?

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Received on Mon Jun 9 12:27:18 2008