Human Freewill VS God’s Will

This is probably one of the biggest debates, both in the secular world and in the Christian world. Is there human freewill, or is everything under God’s will, commonly known as fate?

It is no wonder why this is such a big debate. Whether you are Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, you want to know if what you have a choice in the things that you do, or is your god in control of every single thing in your life, including how much hair grows on your head. Even if you are an atheist, you are also likely to be curious if you have a say in life, or is everything under the bigger umbrella of “fate”.

At a glance, this argument seems simple enough. Humans either have freewill, or they don’t. But when one digs just a tiny bit deeper, things get a little complicated.

But before I go into that, let’s establish some things first. Human freewill and God’s will are two concepts that are highly irreconcilable. That is to say, if human have freewill in their lives, then God’s will is not going to have a say. If God’s will exist in our lives, then human freewill will be extinguished.

Why do I say that? Let me explain.

If there is human freewill, it would very well mean that human has control over the decisions he makes in his life. With that, it would therefore also mean that God has no control over the life of man, because control over one’s life cannot be shared. This is because human’s decisions in life will very unlikely coincide with that of God’s, and if control is shared, God will simply intervene and there will be no freewill on human’s side. Say we take up this camp of the argument, then that would mean everything in this world will be up to chance, and a complex interaction of human decisions.

So maybe we feel that this is not the case. That God’s will is the order of the day. Then there can probably be no human freewill. This is very simply because everything we do will be decided by the almighty, and we have no power to decide what we want to do. Power cannot be shared as well, as any intervention from God’s side will simply rob humans of their will. Why else would God intervene? Is it not to make sure that humans do things according to the way that he willed it to be?

Now that we have established these, let’s take a closer look at the issue. More than freewill is at stake here. If we slant to the side of human freewill, we are very much undermining the power of God in this world, or even destroy the very notion of God itself, and ultimately of religion. So really, it’s not as simple as going to one side or the other.

In this piece, I must first declare that I am not trying to solve this issue by finding out what is right and what is wrong. I simply know too little, and this limited knowledge does not allow me to answer any questions, or make any decisions for an issue as big as this. I only seek to explore the possibilities here.

Let us look at the reality. And I’ll take the Christian’s viewpoint here, simply because I am Christian and would therefore be not adequate to take any other viewpoint due to the lack of knowledge.

The Christian believes that Man has freewill, and that God has a foreknowledge of that freewill. Meaning, Man has the will to sin, and God knows beforehand that Man will be sinning. Simply put, Man can decide whether he wants to sin or not (therefore having freewill), but God already knows that he will sin (foreknowledge). So, here, if you have not realised it already, is a big contradiction. As explained earlier, these two ideas cannot exist.

If God has a foreknowledge that Man will sin, it cannot equate to freewill simply because Man no longer has any choices to make but to sin. This means that God already knows that you will sin, and you will then be saved or not, and then go to heaven or hell (this is the Christian stand). Simply put, God knows where you will end up in the end, heaven or hell, and whatever you do, to be saved or not to be is already pre-determined because God has already decided so, or rather, foreseen. Your choice is already foretold, it’s already decided. If that is so, then what choice do you actually have? What’s the point of making the choice even?

If Man has freewill, he can then choose to not sin, but that would undermine the God’s omniscience. If Man does not sin, that would mean that God was wrong. And if God was wrong, He is not perfect. And if He is not perfect, He cannot be the God that we perceive Him to be. God will be torn down.

Now now now, that is a little blasphemous isn’t it? I have basically torn down an argument that so many Christians hold in order to uphold the fact that we have freewill and that God is omniscient. But let’s try to salvage it a little.

The earlier argument stands on the point that God foresees our actions because He already knows the end and result. But let’s twist that a little. Let’s say God does not have perfect knowledge of what’s going to happen in the future, but just simply a perfect knowledge of us as human beings. The fact that He created all of us (assuming that this is true) would very much qualify this statement. So He has to have a perfect knowledge of EVERYONE in this world, because He created everyone.

Now let’s assume that God has a mind that far overpowers any super computer in this world. And using the knowledge that He has of everybody (note, it’s not the future that he has knowledge of, but of people), He uses a calculation to map out all the possibilities that everyone will encounter, how these possibilities will affect the person’s choices in life, and how these choices will affect the future of this person. If that is the case, it is highly possible that God is capable of calculating the future of a person. Calculating the future (also termed “suan ming” in Chinese) is not the same as knowing the future. This would thus give Man a certain degree of freewill.

But the Christian will not accept this argument, even if it means satisfying their concept of freewill and God’s foreknowledge. And the only reason for this is because they will want to believe that their God is omniscient. If God is omniscient, He will have to have perfect knowledge of the future. However, at the same time, the Christian also wants to believe that he has freewill, he wants to tell the people around him that it is their choice whether or not they want to be saved (although in his heart, he probably knows that God has already foreseen it). The Christian will want to tell you that it is in his freedom whether or not he wants to carry out God’s will.

That would of course sound like a very convincing argument. God has a will for us, and it is up to us whether or not we want to carry it out. It seems to satisfy the contradiction, but it really does not. Because if God is omniscient, He already knows whether or not we will carry it out, and if He knows, what freewill do we have? Everything is already determined in this case, and I am only repeating arguments presented earlier. If we exercise our freewill and do something that God has not foreseen, that would undermine His power of foreseeing, and He is no longer omniscient.

Ultimately, the concept of human freewill and God’s will and omniscience can never be reconciled. It is a contradiction. As much as Christianity tries to present it as a whole and satisfy the best of both worlds, the contradictions still remain and arguments to present it as a satisfied whole remain flawed.

That is how Christianity works. Until today, it remains a religion that is flawed and filled with contradictions and loopholes. However, that doesn’t mean we should abandon it all together. It is just like any other religion. There are always points for contention, but that is only to be expected. Religion is man-made, and man-made things are never perfect.

Rather than using flawed arguments to cover up something that is imperfect, perhaps it is better that we accept these imperfections as they are and keep exploring. The moment we stop exploring religion is the moment we stop learning about it. Nobody is right or wrong because nobody knows the answers anyway. Aren’t we all in the same journey of discovery?