Is Everything Already Determined by Fate or God or Is There Room for Human Freedom?
Is Everything Already Determined by Fate or God or Is There Room for Human Freedom? Do we as human beings have free will or does fate or God determine everything? The human life is lived in constant interaction with a complex of forces, energies, experiences, and events. Those are so varied that it is impossible or difficult to break it down to either or a duality of . There is a pattern of what we have done, experienced, or are a part of. Yet, we are aware that there is a greater being, one that can be called divine.
In that awareness, that of the divine presence, there is always a choice and possibility to create a new self in the image of God. In the book “God and the World”, an expression in Arabic Maktub was brought up which means, “it is written”. The question that was asked to Cardinal Ratzinger was whether or not God shows us the way we have to go so that we only have to recognize what is designated for us. His reply was that in Islam it is addressed that everything is predestined and that we in a way live in a ready-woven web. That belief is contrary to Christianity because it always considers the freedom factor.
In other words, on one hand, God embraces everything; he is aware of everything and guides the course of history. However, he has so arranged it that freedom has a fit in it. (58) In my understanding, Cardinal Ratzinger’s thoughts are as follow. Destiny is not predetermined. God has given you the choice to choose the right or wrong and also your destiny. If you do what God has commanded you to do, you escape hell and destruction. When you obey God’s commands, God saves your life and gives you eternal life after the physical death of your body.
Christians pray because they’re told to. God is all knowing so he does know what we want and we still pray because it shows God that we recognize him as God and that we care enough to talk to him and keep in mind. In the article “Does doubt belong in faith”, there is a passage that states “just as we have already recognized that the believer does not live immune to doubt but is always threatened by the plunge into the void, so now we can discern the entangled nature of human destinies and say that the nonbeliever does not lead a sealed-off, self-sufficient life either. This part stood out to me because we often think of great faith as something that happens naturally so that we can be used for a miracle or healing. However, the greatest faith of all, and the most effective, is to live day-by-day trusting God. The type of trust that will make us look at every problem as an opportunity to see his work in our life. I think that a person’s faith is not complete unless he knows that whatever occurs could not have missed him, and whatever misses him could not have happened him. Everything is subject to the will of God all things were created with predestination.
God knew all the disasters and troubles that happen on earth, or happen to an individual, or to his wealth or family, before they happened. No matter what disasters happen to a person, it is good for him, whether he realizes that or not, because God does not command anything that is not good for us. Once a person knows that all tragedies happen by the will of God, he has to believe and submit and be patient. The position of patience in relation to this aspect of faith, in particular, is like that of the head in relation to the body. Patience is a virtuous attribute with good consequences.
Those who are patient will have an unlimited reward. Believing that God predestines everything that happens will teach a person to be modest and humble. This is so because everything that he does is by the willpower of God so if he succeeds he knows that he helped him in doing it; he doesn’t succeed because he is intelligent or because he is rich or because he deserves it, and, likewise, a person isn’t poor because he is stupid. This stops pride and arrogance from sneaking to his heart because he knows that God can afflict him with harm and deprive him from the rewards he brags about.
In my opinion, believing in predestination doesn’t make a person grieve about anything because he doesn’t say things that reflect unhappiness like “if I did such and such then such and such would have happened”. Also, he doesn’t worry too much about the future because he believes that everything is already written. What he would worry about is his actions and doing well. In the bible, and according to the bible a world that believes in a predestined fatalist environment is not correct. Although, we all are predestined, God has a plan for us all.
He doesn’t want to force us to do anything. We have always had free will. Without free will, what is the point? That is slightly different in Islam because as Muslims, the belief is that everyone’s fate, and destiny is known, and written by God. It’s acknowledged that if someone starts out poor and ends up rich, it’s not because that person earned it out of hard work, it’s because God wrote his fate as starting as poor, and ending up rich. Does Doubt Belong to Faith? October 2, 2007 Edward T. Oakes, S. J.
