I thought I had said all I intended to say on the subject of man’s free will, but a suggestion by one of you pertaining to another Forum thread that connects in this regard. I had forgotten the thrust of why I believe the concept of free will over determinism, at least beyond the core of my belief in it which ‘I’ve already expressed: that there is purpose to free agency unlike it’s opposite. Though no one has said determinism is purposeless, the entire idea seems to lack purpose at all; it just is, or, rather, is alleged to be just the way things are.
The suggestion had reference to the dichotomy of people on this site relative to belief in God, and not believing, and that it seems the numbers of non-believers exceeds the believers. I believe this.
Here’s how that ties to my argument for free will, and it has everything to do with purpose. The primary reason for free will is to choose to accept Jesus Christ, his divine fathership and mortal motherhood, and the glorious atonement he suffered for our benefit to overcome our weakness in sun by repentance, out suffering at the hands of oppressors, our pains of life, and our sorrows in loss. All of these limitations are removed from us, ultimately, in accordance with our choice to accept Christ, and live in joy, or reject him and die in misery.
Sounds like an easy choice when couched in these terms, life and joy, or death and misery. Who would not choose Christ, and his declaration, “I am the life and the light.” The fact is, some us do just that, and we who have find determinism to be nothing but limitation imposed on us, whereas freedom of choice by virtue of the great gift of the atonement, leads us to joy in this life, and anticipation of the next. The difference is a recognition, by our will to do so, of a personal Savior and Redeemer, or the impersonal limitation of thinking the universe imposes its will on us by messing with our brain chemistry by its particles, fields, waves, and forces.