The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Does God force men to sin?

MikeL,

I believe it is very natural to believe we have free will because, in fact, we have free will. The extent of our freedom is the question, no? I wrote a post to you on a thread in the Open Forum that explains what I mean by free will. I hope you'll read and respond to it.

Also, I mentioned medieval thinkers because you (mistakenly?) typed that predestination was not discussed between Augustine and the reformation--at least not that you knew.

Finally, Aquinas's view of the will is that the will of necessity does whatever the intellect presents to it as "good". That is, Aquinas claims humans always choose to do whatever it is that their intellect presents to them as the best at a given moment. Choosing sin is natural, then, insofar as our minds are corrupted and the sinner treats the bad as "good", and so chooses it of necessity. So, the intellect causes (through final causation rather than efficient causation) the will to choose what it chooses. And, yes, Aquinas considers this a free will. But you're right: we shouldn't simply debate what Aquinas said. I just want to make sure you understand that he doesn't endorse the kind of view you are suggesting regarding free will.

(Note: You are endorsing what is called an "agent causal" view of free will. Timothy O'Connor at Indiana University--Bloomington defends the most respected version of this view. It is notoriously difficult to defend, however, because nothing *makes* the will choose what it chooses. If nothing *makes* the will choose what it chooses, it appears as though our decisions are random. Even the strongest defenders of libertarian free will in academic philosophy think this is the most serious threat to their position, and they don't want to endorse a position that claims random acts of choosing are better than determined ones. Which would you prefer? Your actions to be left up to chance or up to deterministic causes? It is a tough choice, no? So the best explanations of free will attempt to eliminate chancy choosings while maximizing agent control. Interestingly, some of these accounts of free will are compatible with the Calvinist understanding of humans.)

Take care,
John