Herein we continue considering the UK’s Church And State’s 6 Things Religion Can’t Explain by Dean Van Drasek, February 5, 2015 AD—see the whole series here.
4. What does God(s) get out of giving humans free will?
Church And State Dean Van Drasek begins this section by noting that “Some religions claim that their god(s) is omniscient, and therefore there is no place for human free will. Free will is an illusion for humans, who are incapable of seeing their future.” Well, technically there is no correlation between being omniscient-all knowing and human free will as God could simply know that which you will do rather than making you do it. He is referring to those who hold that God’s will is inflexible and thus there can be no human free will.
Darsek does get around to this in writing, “Some doctrines try to get around this by saying that god might know the outcome, but he doesn’t interfere in a human’s choices, so there is both omniscience and free will. Presumably, this means that god is then not active in human affairs, sort of like the absent watchmaker of 18th Century European thought.” Yet, even here his “Presumably” is just that, a presumption as, for example, God could lead and guide one to make certain choices—even though some would claim that this would not been “free” will but “lead and guided” will.
He then notes, “But for the relevant god(s), before the soul is even ensconced in a body, to know whether that soul will enjoy paradise or perdition it begs the question of why go through the exercise? But for those religions and doctrines that embrace free will, humans are given the chance to follow god(s) or not, to their benefit or detriment.”
He further asks, “isn’t giving human’s free will sort of like gambling? Each human soul is a roll of the dice. Let’s see if this one goes to heaven or burns forever in hell…It just seems like gambling to me, a curiosity about the unknown future. Human souls as sport for a bored divinity.”
Well, the true issue seems to not be “free will” but “free choice” that is, choosing between two or more optional courses of action. Yet, and yet again, Darsek bases his whole case on “It just seems like” with the “seems” referring to his subjectively myopic emotive opinions.
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