Food for thought – Greg Boyd on why Determinism must be false

I’ve said before that Greg Boyd has produced some really good arguments on the Open View of God.  Greg’s got a great post on his blog from about a month ago (OK, so I’m a little behind) briefly outlining three really good reasons why determinism (a la Calvinism) is logically untenable.  Go check it out!

Greg is actually responding to a previous New York Times article entitled Do You Have Free Will?  Yes, It’s the Only Choice.  This amusingly-titled report looks at some recent psychological experiments that suggest that people seem to believe in a moral responsibility for one’s actions that only works if one had, at least at some level, a choice whether to do them or not.  They have shown that people who are convinced they have free will, tend to behave better (that is, more socially-acceptably) than people who are convinced they have no choice.  It’s an interesting study.

Of course, my favorite summary of the whole argument is:  “You have chosen to believe in predestination, and I am predestined to believe in free will.”  Drives my Calvinist friends nuts!

2 thoughts on “Food for thought – Greg Boyd on why Determinism must be false”

  1. rjscorner

    Thanks for the link Dan. Yeah Greg Boyd can do some serious convincing. I don't think I am predetermined to believe him so I guess I did it of my own free will 😉

  2. Jonathan

    This is quite interesting stuff, Dan. I must admit that I like quite a bit about reformed theology, but I have a hard time following them to the end result of their ideas. At some level, I think the predestination argument is an issue of perspective blown completely out of proportion, so we're really in need of this sort of dialogue to freshen things up and help us grease the wheels of communication.

    I also think Boyd is freaking awesome.

    Blessings.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *