Relationship Between Free Will And Determinism

Dyllan Sparks
Professor Goodner
Intro to Philosophy
12 April 2017
Humans are born free. Each of us has a free soul and can determine the way our lives are lived. The opposing view to free will is determinism, which is the idea that everything that happens has already been predetermined and the laws of nature cause us to do what we do(1). Humans are made in the image and likeness of God and we have free souls given to us by the grace of a sovereign God. This takes away the possibility of determinism because humans can make choices on their own and determine what happens themselves, not the laws of nature.
William James stated that he was free, and his first act of freedom was to believe that he was free (infophilosepher). When an action is
Compatibilism is the idea that free will and determinism are able to co-exist with each other. There is a deterministic connection between our will and our actions. Compatibilism allows humans to take responsibility for the actions that they freely choose to do. Thomas Hobbes and David Hume said that if the person making the action is free from external forces they have freedom of action(info). If humans had purely free will they would be able to do anything they wanted at any time. This is not possible as there are restrictions on people through laws and commitments. Freedom is rather having many choices and having the physical and mental mobility to choose from those choices (philosophynow).
Free will is given to us by God. He created us in his image and likeness but wanted to give us freedom to choose to love or reject him, or to sin, or not to sin. God may be the almighty power, but through his endless grace, he has given us the ability to be free and make choices on our own. He does not force us to do anything and we have the free will to do what we want to do. He does not determine what we will do, he simply tries to guide us in the right direction, but we are free to follow or stray
It is only through God that humans receive free will and it is only through free will that morality is able to exist. If God did not exist the structure of our very society would not be possible. How would we be able to live in a society where everyone is a slave to a chain of events or where morality does not exist because humans do not have the free will required for morality? Free will is the basis of human rights. Without free will, people are not free to make choices on their own or make a life for themselves. If morality did not exist no laws could be made because there would be no way to differentiate between right and wrong. Because there are laws and people can decipher between right and wrong it proves that free will exists, because morality cannot exist without free