Q&A 95
Q. For me a more meaningful question covers the link between an all-knowing "higher other" and predestination. How can I possibly be free if God already knows what I'm going to do? If He knows for sure that I'll end up in hell for example, then no matter what I do, what "free" choices I make, I will necessarily end up in hell. That is, I'm predestined. And if I'm predestined, then I'm not really free... Just another autobot plugged into "The Matrix".
A. Have to admit the great thing about your questions is that they are so we'll phrased, so concrete, that it makes it much easier to zoom into what your question is questing after.
Q. Asante! But flattery aside, can we address the question?
A. I'm assuming here you're looking for an answer beyond the one supplied by common human experience...
Q. What common human experience?
A. That if mankind throughout time and space attributes merit to its various heroes and guilt to its criminals, then this attribution assumes some kind of freedom. Heroes would not be worthy of praise or merit if their feats were just as compulsory as hot air rising; wins in sports tournaments would be emptied of meaning if the loser was fated to lose; murderers and rapists could not be held accountable or punished for their crimes since they were made that way, even the love you have for your beloved and the choices you make to forgo your own comfort and preferences just to make her happy become mere atomic reactions.
But since we do attribute merit and blame and responsibility in general, then we must be free. Common human experience however also concedes that there are external and internal factors that sometimes mitigate or lessen our responsibility because they hinder and hamper us from exercising our complete freedom.
Happy Labour Sunday!
1stMay 2016