Does Free Will Exist?

This may be one of my shortest blogs ever, but here it’s a question that gets asked most often. (especially by me, toward Christians, when I was an atheist)

The Bible is actually very clear on this. Yes.

The most cited example is Adam and Eve being told not to eat the fruit then choosing to do so despite the warning that they would die.

But, I actually think there is a preface to that story even… when Adam is alone, God gives him the task of naming the animals. He doesn’t tell Adam to go attach the name tag He already chose to each animal, he asks him to choose the name. This is the first example of choice.

The OT is full of Abraham and Moses taking to God. And several times when asked about what to do, God says “if they do X, then Y will happen” then the X does something different. (See Exodus 19:2)

Also, I think the following argument is interesting, too. We are made in Gods image. And in Exodus, God decides to destroy the Israelites because of their disobedience and is talked out of it by Moses. If that’s not free will; choosing one, then choosing another… I don’t know what is.

If you want anymore proof just read the rest of the OT and look at how many times “great” men do terrible things. Noah drinks himself stupid after the flood, David kills a rival male, Solomon the great doesn’t end his life nearly as great as he started. These don’t seem like “Gods plans” but ring VERY true as man’s plans.

That being said, I have to admit, the reason this question is so touchy for people is because it often intertwines with a bigger idea, which is “we either have free will OR predestination, but we can’t have both… so which is it?”

Admittedly, I believed for a long time that those two things WERE incongruous… I’ve recently realized they are not. You just have to see them a bit more openly. See that blog here