1. Thoughts on Free Will, part 3
I would like to consider some objections to the position I discussed last
week. I argued that the decision-making process seemed to involve forces
over which we have no control, and therefore it does not appear that we have
free will.
One might argue that our choices are not controlled by predictable,
determined physical laws and that chance plays a role in how material
objects behave. This might be true, but chance doesn’t seem to open any
doors to free will. It only suggests that human decisions can never be
predicted with 100% certainty.
A better argument, in my opinion, relates to the materialistic theory about
human decision making that I described last week. The theory posits that
forces over which we have no control dictate our decisions, and this leads
inexorably to the conclusion that we don’t have free will. Perhaps this
theory about the decision-making process is faulty. I will consider that
possibility next week.
Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.
(Comments and commentaries are welcomed.)
2. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman
Living Compassionately in an Evil World