Objections to the Reality of Free Will

[TK421]

The question really comes down to, should we never hold anyone accountable for crimes or sin? Should we free all the prisoners? Should we never have moral outrage or righteous indignation over atrocities committed in this world? Is our sense of justice imaginary? Are humans all just dumb, irresponsible brutes? Does anything matter?

Even for somebody who is a materialist, I don’t think this would change as much about society as what you might think. We don’t hold diseases accountable in a personal way but we still treat the disease. There can still be such a thing as a justice system even if free will isn’t recognized, but it might affect how we go about dealing with criminals. Plus, people who don’t believe in free will still behave in a way as though they did. I’m not sure if it’s even humanly possible for a person to dispel the subconscious presumption of free will. They “forget” that they don’t have free will as soon as they stop thinking about it and then go about their day as they always do.

As Catholics who believe in free will, we still also believe that environment and upbringing affect the person, including their soul, and this will impact their decision-making. Society could greatly benefit from less rage, or what has been sometimes coined the “Rage Industrial Complex” or the “Hate Industrial Complex” where media is constantly posting the newest thing to click and get worked up about.

 

[fhansen]

I’m not talking about rage. I’m talking about knowing right from wrong, which is made even clearer by the knowledge that God exists and human beings are made in his image and inherently worthy of respect and love rather than victimization.

Of course culpability is different for different individuals depending on such things as age, maturity, mental capability, background, etc, but none of that should serve as a reason or excuse to escape our obligation to hate and say no to racism, genocide, child abuse or any abuse of others. A sort of totally sterile, pragmatic, unemotional response to evil committed against humans would really be evidence of lack of maturity and compassion and most likely result in less effective control of injustice at the end of the day.

 

[Veritas6]

What do you think of the Buddhist monk Vasubandhu’s ideas on our thoughts and the self:

“For, the non-Buddhist opponent believes in an independent self who is the agent and controller of mental actions. If that is so, Vasubandhu challenges them, why do mental events arise in such disorder? Just what kind of a controller is the ‘self’?.. If the ‘self’ is an uncaused agent, why can’t I, for instance, focus my concentration indefinitely?”

“Each temporary collection of psychophysical entities generates, through causal regularities, another collection in the next moment. The mind’s present dispositions are conditioned by its past, and its every experience is only an expression of its internal transformations, triggered of course by influences coming from outside the individual…The intuitive sense of control is a mistake. This is introspectively obvious and is implicit in the non-Buddhist’s admission that a mental series, distinct from the ‘self,’ is dependent upon its own causal impetus.”

"the ‘self’ is made up of constantly-changing sensory organs, sensory impressions, ideas, and mental events. These separate, momentary elements are real, but their imagined unity—as an enduring ‘I’ — is a false projection .”

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vasubandhu/#DisSel

 

[Latin]

…

THE TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS

God causes and effects everything, the willing and the achievement.
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“For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1) that the "Divine will or power is called fate.
But the Divine will or power is not in creatures, but in God. Therefore fate is not in creatures but in God.

The Divine will is cause of all things that happens, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 1 seqq.). Therefore all things are subject to fate.

The same is true for events in our lives. Relative to us they often appear to be by chance.
But relative to God, who directs everything according to his divine plan, nothing occurs by chance.

Hence if this divine influence stopped, every operation would stop.”
Every operation, therefore, of anything is traced back to Him as its cause.” (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III.)

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Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott;

For every salutary act internal supernatural grace of God (gratia elevans) is absolutely necessary, (De fide).

There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will, (De fide).

Fallen man cannot redeem himself. (De fide.)

Without the special help of God the justified cannot persevere to the end in justification. (De fide.)

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308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator.
God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes:
“For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.

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ST. AUGUSTINE ON GRACE AND PREDESTINATION

De gratia Christi 25, 26:
For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it.
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De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32:
It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good . . . . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act, PROVIDING MOST EFFECTIVE POWERS TO THE WILL.

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Aquinas said, “God changes the will WITHOUT FORCING IT.
But he can change the will from the fact that He himself operates in the will as He does in nature,” De Veritatis 22:9.

St. Thomas teaches that God effects everything, the willing and the achievement. S. Th.II/II 4, 4 ad 3:

2022; “The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the FREE RESPONSE of man. Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom, calls freedom to cooperate with it, and perfects freedom.”

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As we see above: Without God’s Internal Supernatural Graces and without God’s Supernatural Intervention in the faculties of our souls neither we have the ability nor we have the will even to think good, do good, to save ourselves or to keep ourselves saved.
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God bless