Freedom versus Predestination: A Comparative Analysis
Shane Furlong
Humanities 4640
April 14, 2013 (Week 5)

Freedom versus Predestination: A Comparative Analysis This week’s essay is a comparative analysis of the theories of freedom (indeterminism) and predestination (religious determinism). Our analysis will attempt to prove the superiority of the theory of freedom over the theory of predestination. First, we will examine the theory of predestination as it is explained in the text “Ethics: Theory and Practice” (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2012). The organization of the text lends itself to our analysis since it highlights differences between the two theories in its defining process. We will illustrate the theory of …show more content…

Peter repented of his betrayal. He returned to a life of dedication to Jesus, albeit after Jesus’s death. According to the Bible, Peter went on to live an exemplary life doing many good works for the sick, poor, and needy. Here is where I think the theory of predestination is deficient. It presupposes that since a being is all-knowing and all-powerful then it is also all-controlling as well. We find nowhere in the text of the Bible that this is true. Instead, we find example after example of mankind making decisions with no instance of God overriding the will of anyone. I contend that this all-knowing and all-powerful God decided to give each human being the right to choose between a pathway to heaven, as elaborated by his prophets, or a pathway to hell for rejecting the redeeming sacrifice made by Jesus. Each human being is given an equal chance to pursue whichever path he is more comfortable with. I am not contending that the reader must accept the Bible as proof of indeterminism, but I am contending that the predestinationalist’s conclusion that and all-knowing and all-powerful God must necessarily also an all-controlling God. I feel that the theory of freedom more accurately represents the human activities of the people in the Christian Bible and it more accurately represents the activities of mankind as I observe them.

References
The Bible. Print. King James Version, 1611.
Thiroux, J. P., & Krasemann, K. W. (2012). Ethics: Theory and