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I noticed this tonight in an edits file, then noticed there was a version in my PhD and so therefore I share...
Based on quick searches, the first appearance of Oxford Philosopher, Tim Mawson on my blogs.
Yes, I do check.
I share, and provide additional perspectives on my material. I hold to compatibilism, but academic balance is needed in PhD work and blogging for that matter.
Philosopher
Tim Mawson reasons that incompatibilism, which is also known as libertarianism
in regard to human free will,[1]
believes that true human free will must be uncaused by preceding states.[2] Thus within incompatibilist theory, a human
action would never truly be free because God would have willed and determined
it on his own before he simultaneously willed it with a given person.[3]
Mawson writes
that incompatibilism, which is closely related to libertarianism in regard to
human free will,[4]
states that true human free will must be uncaused by preceding states[5] This view would rule out God as a preceding
force that determines the human will and actions.[6] Libertarianism[7]
is often viewed as a form of indeterminism.[8] An action cannot be predetermined by any
circumstance or desire.[9] Indeterminism is defined as the idea that
there are no antecedent (preceding conditions) or simultaneous causes of human
actions.[10] All human actions are only free if a person
could have done otherwise.[11]
I reason that many church attendees in our
modern society make a connection, perhaps unconsciously, between libertarian
political,[12]
religious, social type freedom, and libertarianism[13]
in regard to God. However, political
forces that grant some freedoms are finite (limited) entities and should not be
equated with the freedom allowed by the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient God.
At the same time, God’s power to determine events is much greater than any
political entity.
With a
compatibilistic model, if the infinite, omnipotent God restrains himself and
allows his permissible rather than perfect will to take place, his will is
still being done, and he is still determining events, by allowing evil and sin
to occur and not intervening.
[2] Mawson (1999: 324).
[3] Mawson (1999: 324).
[5] Mawson (1999: 324).
[6] Mawson (1999: 324).
[7] Libertarianism supposes that human free
choice is not causally determined, but is not random either. Blackburn (1996: 218).
[10] Geisler (1996: 429).
[11] Geisler (1996: 429).
[12] Political libertarianism maximizes
individual rights and the state has its power minimized. Blackburn (1996: 218).
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
GEISLER, NORMAN L. (1975) Philosophy of Religion, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
GEISLER, NORMAN L. (1978) The Roots of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
GEISLER, NORMAN L. (1986) Predestination and Free Will, Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity Press.
GEISLER, NORMAN L. (1996) ‘Freedom, Free Will, and Determinism’, in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.
GEISLER, NORMAN, L (1999) ‘The Problem of Evil’, in Baker Encyclopedia of Apologetics, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.
MAWSON, TIM (1999) ‘The Problem of Evil and Moral Indifference’, in Religious Studies, Volume 35, pp. 323-345. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
