Determinism, Free will and Religion:
When I was twelve years old, I encountered my first adult question. I thought about how God knows everything, and therefore He must know exactly what I am going to do tomorrow and because of that knowledge I must do what God already knows. What that meant to me from then till this day is that I have no choice about my future, my future is determined.
I took my question to our moulvi sahib of the mosque, we have had such discussions before and he was able to answer all my questions to my satisfaction. But this time he was unable to answer my question; instead he reprimanded me for having such thoughts that could have only been placed in my head by “Shaitan”. I was not disappointed and continued to search for an answer to this paradox, and to my surprise most adults who were knowledgeable in the subject had either not considered this matter or were unable to see a contradiction with free will and responsibility and determinism.
As I grew older I came to the realization that these kinds of questions have been around for thousands of years and those who examined the subject matter were called philosophers and theologians. I studied philosophy and theology and I kept coming across this problem in different forms but was left with more questions.
The problem is simple, we are supposed to be responsible for our actions, but those actions are not determined by our will. Let me explain what I mean here. Firstly, we are material beings and hence behind each our actions are causes. Aristotle talked about four kinds of causes: material, formal, efficient and final. Because we are made out of matter, our actions are ultimately governed by those laws that ‘dictate the behavior of matter’. As I learned a little bit about biology I discovered that certain aspects of my behavior were simply inherited by my parents. The other parts of my behavior were determined by the environment, the nature nurture debate.
As I grew older I became more and more convinced that we are determined, and there is enough evidence for this. Now comes the question of responsibility and punishment either in this life or the next. What sense does it make to punish those who did not choose their circumstances in life, were dealt a certain hand by their biology and to add to all these arguments the fact that an all-knowing God would make sure that I have absolutely no free will in any matter. I am simply doing what the all-powerful God wants me to do, and knows what I will do. So I came full-circle to the question that I asked when I was twelve, why would God judge us for our actions when we did not out of our own volition commit those acts. It is like if we were to take a robot and punish it for doing precisely what he was designed to do.
If human beings do not have free will, the idea of punishment and responsibility becomes moot. We can see this in our legal systems, where some people are not charged with murder or not punished accordingly because of their diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime. We also take into account a persons’ environment when making decisions about guilt or punishment. So when do we punish or hold people accountable? When we can convince a judge or a jury that the person by his own volition committed the crime knowing fully well the consequences of their actions. This fact proves that in this world we operate as if we had free will. Baring any obvious mental illness or the presence of extenuating circumstance we routinely judge people on the basis of their actions and assume that behind those actions is a free will.
For someone like me who firmly believes that we have no free will, I can see why for a society it would be important to operate as if we have free will. The presence of free will becomes a form of social control. As a society we can control the behavior of other members by holding them accountable for their actions. Even if those actions are coerced or done according to God’s will. But then my question pertains not to this life, but the next one. Why would God judge us when in fact He knows exactly what we are about to do every second of our life?
At this point I turned to some sacred books to see how my paradox is treated. To my surprise I found that the Quran makes a similar claim to our being determined. And the notions of responsibility exist with an assumption of free will. The French existentialist philosopher made a case for free will and responsibility to the point that he declared that if we are to have free will then an all-powerful God cannot exist. I thought instead that human freedom was an illusion and that there are powerful arguments to prove that punishment and responsibility are not determined by our actions. Ultimately, we are saved from punishment not because of our actions; rather we are saved by the grace of God. That is the belief of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The above arguments led me to a solution of the problem of responsibility and judgment when we do not choose our actions. I realized a while back that we are falling through space at thousands of miles per hour. Just imagine that you are falling in air, how much freedom do you really have. Well you may be able to touch your nose, or do some somersaults. You might even decide to fly in a certain direction for a few minutes. But the major force acting on you is gravity; therefore your whole body is going in that direction. Similarly, in this life our major forces are our biology, the environment that shapes us and we have limited free will. We don’t have any free will of our actions. We have free will about how we will respond to what happens to us. As we go through life the only volition we have is in our consciousness. Suppose someone is destined to kill his father. Once that happens, there is a choice about how the person reacts to what he has done. He could be remorseful or boastful. That is where our limited free will lies. As we go through life, God dictates our material circumstance. What is left open to us is how we are going to choose to feel about what we are going through. Are we going accept our circumstances or loudly complain throughout our life? Are we going to recognize when we are wrong or blame others for our situation or circumstance? This is what responsibility is all about. To take ownership of whatever life throws your way. That is what we will be judged on, in the end those of faith would recognize that all circumstances are God’s creation and we are powerless over his will. The only power we can display is how we react. Do we accept this life as a gift of God, no matter what our circumstances are?
Dear Dr. Shah,
I would not agree with your notion that we do not have free will at all. From my perspective and what makes sense as well is that we are put in situations based on a predetermined “kismat”. However, what we do in these situations and what decisions and actions we take are totally up to us. That is how we get judged by the All Mighty. These decisions shape up the path of our lives. And we get to choose how we want to live our life based on these situations. Your contention does not make us responsible for anything accept how we “feel” about our decisions. That’s not enough and seems a bit escapist concept. If I go in to a room full of valuables, its up to me to decided to take anything. Its up to me to become a robber or not. What do you say about this concept?
Hello,
Quite interestingly I guess most people with above average IQ would have this question.
These are the people Quran mentions as “People with wisdom”
I have had this question when I was in 10th grade and my friend and I argued about this and finally went to my grand father who also gave us a typical response just as Moulvi sahab in in case of sister Muneeza.
After getting some grey in my head I think I have figured out the question of free will.
Agree or disagree but this is my opinion.
Before I say further I would like to point out that our analysis on such complicated subject is based on our own intellect and background….
Allah gives many examples to the “people of wisdom” from our own experiences in life.
One such example of “Our Own Experience” is Video / Computer game.
You find millions of people addicted to playing computer game… every single step of these games is written in the code and yet we all have this illusion of being in control while playing and we actually lose of win depending on our own selections / choices and moves that we make.
Even though the game is fixed code written by another human like us we still do not feel this while we are in the game… and we do get sense of reward or defeat.
And YES!!!! Indeed we also feel that we have free will (within the boundary of game)
And in the exact way… the life of world is a game (as mentioned in Quran)
Within the boundaries of this life (earth, and universe) we are given with multiple choices and certain free will…
We have been given a manual, rules and regulation to play game in the form of religion…
We follow correct rules and use are good judgment and we get reward at the end (be that a golden trophy, or Paradise)
we make mistakes … and the monster eats us or we fall in the pit..
Explain me… if human can make such video games why the creator of every thing can not make much more sophisticated and advance game?
As Moon always Says “Just A Thought!!”
Atif
Dear Khalid,
Your disagreement, on surface, is a good example of “Having free will”. However, I believe, here I would like to emphasize that this is only what I have understood of the existing research, observing human behavior and my life experiences, that beliefs play a central role in decision making and risk behavior. One can argue that values are matter of individual taste but they cannot be assessed without understanding of perceived social norms for a particular individual. Integration of beliefs and values are involved in decision-making and is dependent on cognitive competence/style and environmental factors. One has to see that judgmental biases are more than just random performance errors.
To understand human psychology one has to understand context dependence, which is a very interesting concept and is applied every day from normal conversation to the most sacred beliefs. Similarly naturalism is based on the fact that human conditions are innate. On the other hand humans are part of nature created by God. God has complete control over every thing God has created. Nothing moves without His will.
Here are some good reads. There is extensive research on decision-making abilities and naturalism.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/gh7822u5305v1010/fulltext.pdf
http://www.hss.cmu.edu/departments/sds/media/pdfs/fischhoff/Parker_FischhoffDMC.pdf
http://www.naturalism.org/history.htm
Dr S
Dear Atif,
What you are saying is something I have felt for a very long time. I feel that there is more to spirituality then just mystical stories.
It is scientific and God is the greatest scientist, all we are doing is discovering what he has created. To me, it is mystical that prophets could talk to angels, who would travel with the speed of light and there was communications between, skies and Earth and people could see things from past clearly as if they were happening in front of their eyes. Science has already brought us to the age Quran talks about. Quran and other heavenly books indicate that God can see and hear us all the time and knows what we are doing. It is clear now to see, how that is possible. I recently got my iphone. The machine is mystical; it is like magic, yet there is some human being sitting somewhere, who exactly knows the logic behind each of 70 thousand applications available for the tiny thing.
The example you have used of the video game is a good one. In context of a video game we have choices. We have quite a number of choices but they are still limited. Concept of free will is that we have unlimited choices or choices that are already not programmed in the game. If we believe that this is true then we are essentially saying that the programmer, which in this case is God the Almighty, has not programmed the choices we are making. Thus the programmer has no control over our choices. This is in the realm of blasphemy, but can we see?
“I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.”
Helen Keller
Dr. S
Dear Dr S and others,
Nice discussion going on.. I just want to discuss my thoughts here, as once someone asked Hazrat Ali regarding the will and control of a human over himself, in reply Hazrat Ali asked him to take one foot up, so he moved his foot up. Then asked to move second foot up.. so definitely he couldn’t… Then Hazrat Ali replied that some control over yourself but not ALL. Human Being has limited powers…
Therefore if we see in the light of above mentioned example, we can conclude that we can only do some certain things with our powers and rest control is in Allah’s hand.
Now talking about a person who may be punished due to his bad deeds depends on the actions he performed by his own power… You can take an example of a person who is asked to do some work in office at the rate of $20/hour… he is being paid for doing work, but what his boss will do if he doesn’t work and just wastes time by playing games or doing something else ? – This gives you clear answer. Boss will definitely not pay him the said amount but may ask for penalty-charges for delaying the work and making the client angry.
So I think God will only punish us for the things we will do wrong which are in our control. This is my thinking.. please correct me If I am wrong..
Zia.
Atif
like ever you can find a unique conspiracy theory..;-)
Dear Dr. Muniza,
It’s a very complicated debate as our thoughts on our own religion are not very much clear. We try to understand Islam through Quranic translations, not by learning Arabic (as we learn English to understand other Books). Arabic has the beauty that each word has hundreds of meanings, and there are hundreds of words for a single object. In Quran, ” translations in my own words-A man gets what he strives for, Any misfortune is the result of a man’s own actions, A man gets from Allah, What the man himself wants to, You can take good things, or bad things from Allah as per your wishes etc….” The Quran makes man responsible & active whereas most of the translations make man passive and only believing on what’s already written……… I am sure man is free to think & act, what happens to us is due to our decisions, If we succeed we take the credit, but in case of failure our luck is to take the blame……. A long and confusing discussion….. but we must be open to think and change our present beliefs if some good thing comes in front of us. A person must read many translations of Quran, of different schools of thought to get closer to the reality, otherwise…..
Dear Doctor Shah,
I think we are in some agreement with just a different perspective.
ARE WE CODED?
I believe that our free will is a limited thing because our creator knows how far we can go with it…
Being an expert on human psychology you know it better than I do that how predictable we are?
Could this being so predictable not mean that we share a code written in our psyche?
Why are we all similar regardless of what part of earth we are born and how we grew up?
We all act and react in a same way as if the reaction or expected actions are coded.
Because they are coded… our DNA is code isn’t it?
But DNA is about our physical being and our soul is not part of this.. but can our soul be a code in a similar way?
We have not yet identified the role of our bodies, brain, heart and our soul in this free will as to which plays what role?
Hack! many of us are still confused about existence of soul (thats a separate debate)
Allah says in Quran:
“They ask you about soul… tell them it is a “command” of your lord”
many of us who know computer programming know that “command” is an execution of a code.
Again… proof of code.
I can present more examples from Quran that will prove that every thing is coded.
Experts can even count different attributes of human behavior and catalog them.
What seems to us unlimited really has a limit we just don’t see it… or perhaps can not count it.
LIMIT OF OUR FREEWILL
What I am trying to say is,
Our creation has its limit and so does every thing else that revolves around our existence.
Our freewill is limited because there is only so much we can do with that…
Our souls act as controllers of physical bodies and perform certain predictable task with a limited freewill… that is granted for certain purpose… (find God and worship Him)
Our freewill is only to give us choice to worship or not to worship Allah.
That is the ONLY THING in which Allah does not force us on…
By worship I do not mean just the ritual but also following laws of Allah to live our life in a certain way…some thing we call religion.
this is all part of same directive.. we disobey Allah and start living our life in an alternate way and this gives us an illusion that since we can do this it means we have a freewill… No we do not!
This is our choice that is given in a limited quantity.
you see birds sitting on wires in a row on street poles at dusk all of them praying? they are example of what we could have been had we not been given this choice to worship or not worship…
the same birds have choice where they would live, what they would eat and who they mate with.. but for worship they are not given any other choice..
THIS IS THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN Humans and Animals as far as freewill goes.
We just don’t realize this limit and think that we have so much power over what we can do.
Allah says: when He wants things to be he says Be and that thing becomes in existence..
Does our unlimited freewill allow is to make any thing by just say “Hojaa”?
OUR LIMITS
Apart from being predictable (that shows our limit) we are physically limited also,
few hundred years ago we thought that sky was unlimited but now we know that this unlimited sky (that was in our point of view) was very small piece.
If we compare the size of YV Cannis Majoris (the largest known star) with our Earth then we can figure out our place and reality of our so called freewill. Size of our individual body compare to size of earth is invisible… size of YV CANIS MAJORIS compare to size of erath is so big that earth is invisible … even smaller then invisible.. And our creator who created Universe in which YV CANIS is invisible… Perhaps we need to rethink about what really it means when we say Allah ho Akbar
Regards, Atif
Totally agree.
@Atif
Dear Atif,
That is for sure that we are coded. What we are as persons is 40% genetics and 60% enviromental. But enviromental integration is adjusted with genitic coding.We are fairly predictable, past behavior predicts future behavior and we do have a code written in our psyche,this code is called intelligence and it can self-adjust.
Saying that we are similar , regardless of what part of the world we are from is not entirely true as we do have marked differences. We all do not react in the same way about all situations.
I believe is soul is very scientific and is a form of biological energy. Ekhart Tolle , wrote a book called ” A New World”. He presents very interesting concept of soul. I do agree with you that we are coded but we have not decipher the code yet.
Regards,
Dr S
As Muslims – we HAVE to believe in the Divine Qadr (this is one of the pillars of iman/faith). To doubt this is to be out of folds of religion.
There are a few things in a religious/realistic perspective: All based from the Book of Truth –
word.
The Quran says about Free will:
“These actions are a consequence of their efforts and their choice, a power that has been given to them by Allah. He thus says in the Qur’an: To whoever among you wills to go straight…..”
Qur’an 81:28
Again a matter of choice given in the Qur’an – we have chosen to either follow or not follow and then Allah decides the consequences depending on our desires:
“……..So when they turned away (from the Path of Allah) Allah turned their hearts away (from the Right Path) and Allah guides not the people who are fasiqun (rebellious, disobedient to Allah).”
Qur’an 61:5
“And say: ‘The truth is from your Lord’ Then whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him disbelieve…………..”
Qur’an 18:29
Allah (SWT) knows what is to happen – He has given us the choices and He is well-aware of the choices we will make, have made. He knows our secret thoughts and those thoughts we speak out loud.
“Know you not that Allah knows all that is in the heavens and on earth? Verily, it is (all) in the Book (Al-Lauh -Al -Mahjfuz). Verily! That is easy for Allah.”
Qur’an 22:70
When Shaitan was given the command to prostrate before Adam (AS) – he rebelled and used logic. He was thrown out of heaven. He made a choice. Allah knew the choice but He is not going to interfere in our choices. He will only help those who make the right choices as per Quran and Sunnah.
And the end of it all.
“Who has created Death and Life, that He may test; which of you is best in deed’s. And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving.”
Qur’an 67:2
And Allah knows best. May He guide us all to the right path. and help us in making the choices that lead us to Him so we are able to pass this test.
discussion around determinism and freewill breaths only within the religious sphere. If one thinks outside of religious bounds it may become evident in no time that human behavior is stochastic in nature, part planned and part random.
Dr Shah,
I haven’t the time to read through the responses to your article below, but:
I do not see how one may simultaneously believe in a determined future and “limited” free will. The argument appeared quite rational to me, until you hit on the latter. Surely, in an ordered universe, one’s reaction to an event is determined in the exact same manner as one’s action – for a reaction is synonymous with further action, spurring further events. Yes, the origins of existence are speculative at best, but we are forced to assume that all actions precipitate reaction.
I can see your point and I would like to believe it, but to me, “limited” free will doesn’t fit with the rest of your argument.