Free Will in Contemporary Context – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Free Will in Contemporary Context
The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Why this question matters today.

Question: What does the Law of God teach about free will?

“Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 16:20

Many matters of significance are implied in this brief command: that we may know what justice is, and what “doing justice” requires of us; that following justice is to be desired over following injustice; that there are consequences for our choices; that justice is in line with the will of God; and so forth.

I imagine that most people would like to live in a just society. They want things to be right and fair, and they want people to follow the rules or, if not, to receive the “just deserts” or their unjust actions.

But what if “justice” is merely a human construct? And what if that human construct, as we know it today, has been foisted upon us by people who are not acting in accord with human nature when they require us to submit to “justice” as they define it? What if, in fact, we are expected to act in certain ways, under certain circumstances, which to fail in is to incur punishment, but that we are almost certainly guaranteed to fail in because of the nature of our bodily composition?

This is the question, one of them at least, which certain members of the neuroscience community are beginning to ask. Recent studies are leading some neuroscientists to conclude that there is no such thing as free will. To these researchers it is becoming apparent that, prior to our actually making choices or taking actions, our brains have been at work directing our thoughts, wills, and choices in directions determined by factors other than our desires. Through a variety of brain studies, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists believe they can observe the brain working before the subjects being observed make conscious decisions. The brain is at work, in effect, guiding our desires and choices, and it is acting in response to stimuli from within and around us, of which we are not conscious and over which we have no control.

In other words, we have no free will. Our willing is determined by activity within our brains, brought on by stimuli beyond our ability to know or to control.

In the arena of justice, this could mean that punishing “criminals” for their actions is, in effect, inhumane, because justice, as practiced today, holds people accountable for their actions, when it may be that they actually have no control over their actions, that other factors or forces are operating in or on them before they choose to act, compelling them to act in ways beyond their ability to control. “Justice” as we know and practice it today may not be “just” at all, and it may be time to reconsider such taken-for-granted terms as “crime” and “punishment” and “rehabilitation.”

The philosophical community is alarmed by such conclusions, as are many neuroscientists and, sociologists, legal experts, law enforcement officials, and (of course) politicians. Is some of the most nuanced and sophisticated science of our day leading us to see that our centuries-old definitions of “justice” are wrong, and our system of justice inhumane?

In God’s commandment to Israel is embedded the assumption, as we have seen, that the people can know what justice is and what it requires, and that they can freely choose to follow justice and only justice. Is God simply wrong?

Got a question about the Law of God? Write to T. M. at tmmoore@ailbe.org, and your answer might appear in this series of In the Gates columns.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.