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Ch. 12 Hindson - notes
Introduction to Christian Thought (D) (Liberty
University)
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12. Determinism: Everything Is
Determined Everyday Biblical Worldview
12Determinism: Everything Is Determined
In 1999, Jim Carey starred in a movie called The Truman Show. The basic premise of the movie is that
the main character, Truman Burbank, is in a reality TV show but does not know it. A television company
built a mock world in which there is a tiny village on an island. Truman was born there and raised for his
entire life in this studio; only he doesn’t know it is a studio. He thinks it is real life. Everyone in Truman’s
life is an actor. The director causes certain things to happen to influence Truman’s decisions. The
director can make it rain when he wants, or he can have an actor interrupt what is happening. Truman’s
life has been determined by those around him.
Fortunately for Truman, he eventually understands what is happening and begins to free himself
from these determining influences. The Truman Show reveals key aspects of the philosophy known
as determinism. Just as Truman is trapped, unaware, inside a TV show, determinism asserts humans
are trapped inside the drama of history without a clue of its determining influences.
An Overview of Determinism
Determinism is a unique philosophy. In determinism lies one of the oldest philosophical—and even
theological—debates in history: do humans have free will or not? Determinism, the belief that
everything is determined, suggests that the entire world is based upon a cause-and-effect relationship,
starting from the first cause. Determinism posits that the very words I am writing right now are no
accident but were determined by a prior series of thoughts and actions that can be extrapolated to the
beginning of time and creation. Determinism asserts that the past, present, and future are inseparably
woven together through a string of circumstances that cannot be altered.
For example, a young man may feel he has chosen a woman to be his bride and she has chosen him. Yet
according to determinism, this was a wedding destined to occur as a consequence of history. Every
personal interaction, word, and event that happened in each of their lives influenced them in such a
way that the inevitable result had to be their marriage.
From the outset, this view sounds strange and overly complex. However, determinism finds its way into
our thinking more than we realize. Most people have had a conversation at least a few times that sounds
something like this: “I wouldn’t have this job right now if I hadn’t met Ken. I wouldn’t have met Ken if I
hadn’t gone on a cruise for my honeymoon. I wouldn’t have taken a cruise if I hadn’t married my wife,
who dreamed of taking a cruise for our honeymoon. I wouldn’t have met my wife if I hadn’t gone to
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college . . . ” Onward continues the extrapolation until you inevitably arrive at the moment of your birth,
something that would never have happened if your parents had not had met. Truly, the extrapolation
can continue indefinitely. This is the idea of determinism.
A simple clause to think of when speaking of determinism is “this never would have . . . if this would not
have.” The world balances on a cause-and-effect scale. Nothing happens without a cause. Even the
smallest of choices, like which restaurant to visit with your friends, has a cause. Each choice is the
inevitable effect of that cause.
Volition versus Determinism
The question of determinism has haunted people for centuries. Perhaps the most poignant aspect of
the philosophy is whether or not a person can have meaning if we are but the consequence of history.
Does the decision to have children or not mean anything if that decision was determined through a
prior chain of events? Does it really matter which career is chosen? Though both of these examples
theoretically involve a decision, and thus contradict determinism, determinism in its purest sense totally
strips away free will. Free will is an illusion. A person can make a choice, but that choice is the inevitable
result of history.
The primary question of determinism is whether humanity is volitional or determinable. Ancient
determinism typically involved some sort of deity. Now, determinism is associated with naturalism and
dismisses the concept of God. This was a direct result of the Enlightenment, which progressively began
to reject the supernatural and remove God from the realm of nature and existence. From this
naturalism was birthed, and from naturalism came Darwinism, which suggests all organisms are evolved
from a previous more basic organism. Determinism as an atheistic philosophy then had enough
scientific support to make a case for itself.
Yet determinism as a philosophy also has catastrophic effects on any who believe it to be true. If
determinism is true, then every choice we make is of no consequence, nor of any value. Therefore life
itself, which is literally decades of choices, becomes meaningless and devoid of purpose. No longer does
it matter if a person marries or remains married. No longer does it matter what God says about
important issues in life. The only thing that matters is what happens, and that is so far beyond our
control that it is almost inconceivable. Everything that seems meaningful is simply an illusory choice or a
consequence of history. Understandably, this philosophy, along with naturalism, led to the origin of
next chapter’s topic: nihilism, the belief that nothing has intrinsic value, meaning, or truth.
Nihilism is where determinism inevitably lands. There are two options for the determinist. One is to
believe that everything is meaningless and truth is abstract. The other is to buy into the illusion of free
will. Even if free will is an illusion, perhaps acting as though it exists can ease the pain of determinism.
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This points out an important fact: a life devoid of God is destined to lead to meaninglessness. Without
God, there can be no purpose, truth, or value in life. Determinism does not state whether there is a God
or not, but it does prove that without God life cannot be meaningful. To ascribe meaning in any other
way, is to create your own “noble lie.” Plato coined this term to mean that some lies are noble if told for
the common good of the people, yet in such an individualistically driven society as ours, the “noble lie”
has often been used in reference to believing there is meaning to an otherwise meaningless life for the
literal sake of sanity.
Determinism’s Relatives
Determinism is its own unique philosophy in that it is entirely based in the natural world. However, as
previously stated, it addresses an issue that has existed for millennia. Before naturalism was even a
serious contender in philosophy or the public square, there was fatalism. Fatalism is similar to
determinism, but they should not be confused. Fatalism is the idea that if something is sure to happen in
the future, then it is outside the power of humans to change it. William Lane Craig shares an Arabic
parable that demonstrates this idea in his book The Only Wise God:
A man was visiting Damascus and, upon rounding a corner, ran right into the person of Death. Both he
and Death were startled to confront each other, and the man, fearing for his life, fled to Jerusalem. The
next night Death came to his room and claimed him. “The reason I was startled to see you in
Damascus,” explained Death, “was that I knew I was supposed to meet you here in Jerusalem tonight,
and so I was surprised to find you there!”[35]
In this story, the man, though trying to flee death, actually ended up exactly where Death was told to
meet him. This is fatalism. What had already been decided for the future was totally out of the man’s
control. A modern example can be found in the horror film series Final Destination. In these movies,
each character is destined to die. By trying to escape death, they usually end up running exactly where
their life was meant to end, and it ends how it is supposed to end. This is fatalism. The difference
between fatalism and determinism is twofold: First, determinism is entirely naturalistic, while fatalism
allows for the supernatural. Second, fatalism suggests the future is fixed by fate or destiny, sometimes
devoid of a source, while determinism asserts that the future is fixed by the past and the present.
Another philosophy similar to determinism is predeterminism. Predeterminism is somewhere between
determinism and fatalism. Predeterminism, unlike fatalism, does actually adhere to the cause-and-effect
theory that so encapsulates determinism. Predeterminism believes that every event and outcome is the
effect of some prior cause and that the future will be the same no matter what. Thus far, it sounds the
same as determinism.
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However, the difference is that predeterminism does not encapsulate every dimension as determinism
does. Predeterminism, by definition (the prefix “pre”) implies that someone or something intentionally
determined the cause for the desired effect. Of course, sometimes this is simply natural. Natural
disasters are a cause and effect, determined by things that science can often explain. However, a better
example may be the idea of genetics, in which predeterminism is actually discussed frequently,
especially regarding ethics. Geneticists can literally cause a baby to have a specific eye color or other
genetic attributes by predetermining the desired effect and causing it to happen. Predeterminism is also
inclusive of the supernatural. Not surprisingly then, many theologies use predeterminism to explain
certain things: “God must have caused X effect to happen.”
Both predeterminism and fatalism are similar to determinism, but are worth distinguishing because the
seemingly small differences lead to vastly different conclusions. Fatalism and predeterminism both
include the supernatural. This is totally opposed to determinism. When discussing determinism, it is
imperative not to confuse this philosophy with that of fatalism or predeterminism.
Determinism and the Bible
Though determinism is now an entirely naturalist philosophy, the issue has long been a theological
issue. For the sake of understanding determinism and the core issue involved, it is necessary to depart
from the modern naturalistic view and explore deterministic thinking in regard to God. Christianity is
not exempt from the same debate. Has God predetermined everything that happens in the world, or
have people been given free will? Most notable is the Calvinistic debate. Calvinism can either mean that
God has predetermined those who will be saved and those who will be damned, or that God has
predetermined every single event in history, down to every dust particle and which way it floats through
the air. Yet Calvinism tackles the issue from a purely theological standpoint, which is distinct from
modern determinism.
A century after Calvin was born came a political philosopher by the name of Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza
contributed greatly to the philosophy of determinism. It is likely that Spinoza would have adopted
naturalistic determinism if naturalism had been as likely a theory as it became two centuries after his
death. Yet Spinoza reconciled determinism to the best of his ability with (sometimes) a belief in God,
suggesting free will was only possessed and employed by God:
Everything, according to Spinoza, is ruled by an absolute logical necessity. There is no such thing as free
will in the mental sphere or chance in the physical world. Everything that happens is a manifestation of
God’s inscrutable nature, and it is logically impossible that events should be other than they are. This
leads to difficulties in regard to sin, which critics were not slow to point out. One of them, observing
that, according to Spinoza, everything is decreed by God and is therefore good, asks indignantly: Was it
good that Nero should kill his mother? Was it good that Adam ate the apple? Spinoza answers that what
was positive in these acts was good, and only what was negative was bad; but negation exists only from
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the point of view of finite creatures. In God, who alone is completely real, there is no negation, and
therefore the evil in what to us seem sins does not exist when they are viewed as parts of the whole.[36]
When coupling determinism with God, there are significant consequences, far beyond what even
Calvinism may suggest. Ultimately, though, determinism at the hand of God makes God responsible for
sin, which he cannot be.
However, there is a legitimate sense in which God has determined that certain things occur. For example,
Scripture notes several instances the Lord “determined” to take place:
In the eternal counsel of God, the death of Jesus as the atonement for sin was a divine “determinate”
(Acts 2:23; cf. Luke 22:22).
By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus was “declared” (horizo), i.e., determined to be God’s Son in a
uniquely powerful way (Romans 1:4).
God’s sovereignty over the nations of the world is emphasized in that he has “determined” the duration
of their supremacy and the limitation of their dominion (Acts 17:26).
Salvation from sin is “limited” (KJV) or “defined” (ASV; horizo—Hebrews 4:7) by a certain (symbolic)
“day.” It is the “Today” when a person chooses to “hear his voice,” “hardens not” his heart, and
“obeys” the conditions of salvation (as implied by “disobedience” v. 6b). The Lord has “determined” to
save all who choose to do his will (Revelation 22:17).
God has appointed a certain day on which he will judge the world in righteousness, and he has
“ordained” (horizo) that the judgment will be rendered by his Son (Acts 17:31b; cf. 10:42), the
guarantee of which was the Savior’s resurrection.[37]
God may plan events, but humans are also responsible for their actions. While some may find this
tension uneasy, God exists outside of time and has wisdom beyond full human understanding. God can
know and plan events in advance while those involved are also fully responsible for their individual
actions.
Determinism and Christianity
Whether or not humans are volitional beings or are controlled by the laws of cause and effect, the world
may never decide. In a very practical sense, determinism is used every day in ascribing credit to certain
events or people for resulting in something else. Yet it is typical for people to want to believe that they
have control over their actions. A person would usually rather suffer the consequences for his or her
choice than live an entire life as an unknowing puppet.
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There is much to consider about these implications within Christianity. There is an obvious sovereignty
that God possesses. Christians believe God can control the entire world and is all-powerful. Further, most
Christians believe that certain events were the effect of something God caused. Yet if God causes some
events, does he cause them all? Not all Christians agree, though Scripture is clear that God is at least in
control of all that occurs.
In summary, modern determinism, rooted in naturalism, cannot be true or good. It is ugly and offensive
to God in that it denies his existence and removes meaning and value from people and their decisions.
Regardless of their particular views on God’s determining power, believers must be able to trust God in
his sovereignty and be willing to follow him day by day.
