Are we really making choices?

In Islamic tradition, two philosophical schools of thought have

emerged concerning this question. The first was the Compulsionists,

who believe that man has no freedom of choice. Every decision,

utterance and action people make has already been predestined since

the time of creation. The second was the Free Will, who declare that

human beings are masters of their own acts. This notion is in

concordance with the Qur’an, which states, “None will be wronged in

anything, nor will you be requited anything except that which you

used to do” (36:54). Human beings have the freedom to act, but they

must bear the moral responsibilities and consequences of their

actions.

Imam Mostafa Al-Qazwini

Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County

Costa Mesa

Classically Anglican “Articles of Religion,” accepted by the

Episcopal Church in 1801 and included in the current Book of Common

Prayer as a “Historical Document,” give “both-and” answers to this

question: “Free will can do good only with the grace of God” (Article

X. Of Free-Will) and “Predestination to Life is the everlasting

purpose of God ...” (Article XVII. Of Predestination and Election)

the Book of Common Prayer (p. 845) says, “We are free to make

choices: to love, to create, to reason and to live in harmony with

creation and with God.”

Determinism is the theory that since God knows everything else,

God must also know everything each one of us will do and who is going

to heaven and who to hell; so, the die is cast before we even roll

it. As Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner writes in “Wishful

Thinking,” “Theorizing about God in this way is like an isosceles

triangle trying to theorize the Great Pyramid of Cheops into the two

dimensions of the printed page. The fact that I know you so well,

that I know what you’re going to do before you do it, does not mean

that you are not free to do whatever you damn well please.”

The Very Rev. Canon

Peter D. Haynes

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church,

Corona del Mar

The author I.B. Singer was asked if he believed in free will. He

answered, “Of course, do I have a choice?” Judaism would affirm what

Shakespeare wrote, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars but

in ourselves.” Man is not a puppet dangling on a celestial string, a

pawn without responsibility in a game over which he has no control.

The entire moral-legal code of the Torah is based on the

assumption that people can choose between right and wrong, good and

evil. For only if man is free to choose can he accept responsibility

for his deeds, and only if man is responsible for his deeds can he be

rewarded or punished.

If we did not have the capacity to choose evil, if the thought of

sin was contrary to our very nature while the urge to do good drew us

with irresistible magnetic force, then we would do not evil. That,

though, would not make us good because imposed goodness is no

goodness. Man under duress is no man.

Samuel Johnson said, “With regard to free will, all philosophy is

against it and all experience is for it.” Man is a choosing being.

The stars move in their appointed orbits, but man can move backward

as well as forward and he alone can decide which it will be.

RABBI MARK MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach