The grandest, most abstract, metaphysical questions are, strangely, the ones most intimate and germane to our lives – the question, for instance, of the position of humans in the cosmos, the extent of our vulnerability and of our power.
According to the ancient Greeks, not only was each of the forces of nature considered to be a god (typically, as well as a god of the sea, they had semi-deities of rivers, lakes and springs), but often it is the gods who manipulate human motivation and deeds. Not entirely, however. Greek tragedy is suffused with the issue of how far what we do is subject to the gods and Fate –therefore out of our hands– and how far we are responsible for it.
The monotheist religions emphasise that we are free to choose, which entails that our actions merit praise or blame, reward or punishment (both human and divine); but there is still the problem of how the human is to be ‘redeemed’ from his/her flawed nature. Is this a matter of good behaviour (salvation by merit) or God-inspired openness to grace (salvation by faith) or predestination (salvation, like all other events, being ordained and foreseen by God)?
Whichever we plump for, God is in an odd position, and His omnipotence, omniscience and benevolence seem jointly inconsistent. Science and atheism increasingly suggest that we are pre-set (by genes, conditioning, social circumstance) and lack any real freedom of action; but how do we reconcile that belief with the sense of choice (indeed, of having to choose). I want to examine the way philosophy and theology intersect on these questions of free will and human nature.