Belinda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 11:17 am
God determines everything that has happened or will ever happen. So that men could choose to obey God, or not as the case may be, ...
If God truly determines everything it would include every supposed choice every human being made. That is the view of the extreme Calvinist called
predestintion. The Calvinists, at least are consistent in their view and deny limitless free will. Their inconsistency is in holding individuals responsible for their behavior and beliefs in spite of the fact they have no choice in the matter.
If human beings truly have free will their own behavior is self-determined and cannot also be determined by God. In the past, theologians have performed some amazing mental gymnastics attempting to eliminate this obvious contradiction.
Modern philosophers do much the same thing while teaching that human behavior is determine by evolution, genetics, brain behavior or brain chemicals, culture, or other influences they work very hard to convince people to choose to believe them and hold people responsible for their beliefs and acts as if they actually had a choice in the matter.
The point is that human behavior, including thinking, is either consciously chosen or determined by something else.