Humans are never autonomous in any way.
OK, autonomy isn’t the right term. Let’s say independence or freedom. One can be sufficiently independent or free in thought and action to be culpable, surely, without being autonomous?
Let’s not discount the effects of grace and original sin, either, which come entirely from God!
My circumstances may not (or not all) be under my control. But I can almost always have at least a measure of control over my response to them. Guarantee you, even if you put identical twins who’ve been brought up as similarly as possible in the same situation, and are as alike as possible in every other way too, they won’t necessarily react the same. They at keast at times will make different choices and react in different ways to the same stimuli. Heck, you put ME in the same situation twice in a row, all other things being equal, I wouldn’t necessarily behave the same way both times.
Original sin did NOT come entirely (or at all) from God. It came from human misuse of free will. Just because God CAN do anything and everything doesn’t mean He DOES do everything or anything - creatures do act on their own!
We Catholics are generally more willing to recognize this when we talk about saints, actually. The saints (and we along with them) are very ready to credit all their holiness, all their success, all their good hearts and good acts, to the grace of God alone. They refuse to take credit for any of their goodness.
Of course you DO believe that we are responsible for our actions - to say otherwise is totally hypocritical. I’m sure if you worked for 8 hours digging a ditch for your city council you’d demand just pay for it and wouldn’t say ‘oh well, God did it, not me, so don’t pay me!’ So you of course believe that you are sufficiently responsible for that work to deserve payment for it!
And so do saints and the Church. Put it this way - do you honestly think we canonise God and Him alone for the goodness of each Saint? Or do we honour the person themselves as well, for their achievements? THe answer should be obvious - why give a feast day to a mere helpless tool in the hand of the Almighty? The Star of Bethlehem doesn’t get a feast day in its honour, yet it did God’s will and showed forth His glory every bit as much, in your sense, as any Saint.
In scripture, it’s not called ‘Acts of God using the Apostles’, it’s called ‘Acts OF the Apostles’. And there’s no question but that they work and exercise their independent will for His glory.
Paul talks about his own works at length. He even calls himself a co-labourer with God at one point, and at another says that HE saves people - as in ‘I became all things to all men, that by all means
Imight save some’. Pretty presumptuous if all we are is non-free-willing instruments of God.
And so it seems to me, LilyM, that the Catechism’s note on culpability for masturbation applies equally to every particular sin ever committed by mankind.
In that things like addiction or force of habit can negate our consent, it DOES apply to every grave sin. But not every background circumstance, or collection of circumstances, is of such weight or import that it sufficiently negates our will. Courts recognise that when they punish wrongdoers, and so does God.
This, of course, makes Catholic doctrines about salvation and damnation very difficult. But, on the bright side, the Catholic teaching on
predestination, which often shocks the consciences of those who easily believe in free will, makes perfect sense to me.
The Church doesn’t teach and never has taught NEGATIVE predestination, however. Paul mentions those predestined to be saved, but there is no such thing as predestination for Hell. God has TOLD us in scripture what HIS will is for all men, which is salvation for each and every soul. In that some of us aren’t saved, His will is thus clearly being thwarted.
And when Jesus spoke in Gethsemane of ‘not my will, but Thine’, He clearly indicates that the two (human will and God’s will) are not one and the same thing. If humans lacked autonomy as you state, and if God had complete control over everything, as you also state, then His will and our human will WOULD be one and the same - and Christ’s prayer wouldn’t even be possible, logically speaking.
Start from first principles. Scripture assures us of two things:
a) God wills salvation for all. Do you believe this? There’s no reason not to - salvation being eternity in His presence, why WOULD He will any of His beloved creatures not to be with Him for eternity?
b) People are damned. Again, scripture, God’s word, tells us so. Do you believe this? Again, there’s no reason not to.
These two principles being a given, what then could possibly be the cause of people being damned, as again He makes abundantly clear that some are? Like Sherlock Holmes, we must eliminate the impossible and see what remains. Cruelty? Impossible - if so why not damn all of us and so maximise His enjoyment?
Double predestination? Again impossible - if so why not clearly tell us that some are predestined for damnation so that they need not bother trying to get into heaven? Like an employer setting out criteria in a job ad so that he or she isn’t swamped with applications by unsuitable candidates?
What remains? Any other possible reasons why people would be damned for things over which they, as you say, have no control? Or do you think, alternatively, that God lied in scripture? Or that scripture is errant (in which case why belive any of it?)
