Recently articles have hit the press about a Stanford neuroscientist and biologist, Dr. Robert Sapolsky. Dr. Sapolsky believes that humans don’t actually have a free will. He argues that all of our decision making is the product of our brain structure, hormones, childhood experiences and life circumstances. A more radical but similar view has been held by those who hold to a materialistic philosophy which argues that brain activity (structure and chemistry) determine our actions, and that we are in fact just robots made out of meat.
Some of this argument is just semantic. Without a doubt, many things influence our decisions. The question is whether there is something about us that is above the mere functioning of our brain that makes decisions. Can we rise above hormones, childhood and immediate fight or flight to make decisions? This is a complex question and hard to determine in a lab.
Without a doubt, one can introduce electrical input into sections of the brain and elicit motor response or even specific thoughts. This doesn’t prove that the brain is the source of every day decision making. It almost proves the opposite. Some type of “external” stimulus moves the brain. That stimulus is normally our soul.
Theologically the question is complex as well. The Bible explains that our sinful nature impacts the actions of our will. I understand “sinful nature” as something genetic. These altered genes produce a hormonal and brain structure that is initially closed off to God and inclined toward behavior that God considers “unnatural” or sinful. It is unnatural in that it is not the way humanity was created. Now, after humanity’s corruption, it is completely natural, but still wrong.
We can think of three groups of people and the differences between their ability to act freely. Adam and Eve would be the first. Prior to breaking their one and only command, they would have been able to act independently from all influences–even God. There was no sinful nature that tainted their actions. Satan was a source of temptation that could have been ignored. Clearly, from the fact that they chose to sin, God could also be ignored.
After eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, things were different for all human beings. Now God could still be ignored. Worst than that, we lost our ability to understand and trust God.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
Satan had much more direct influence, but not full control. Someone who was possessed by a demon fully or almost fully loses control of their brains and body. Our biology also exerts so much influence that I would agree with Dr. Sapolsky that decision making is merely a product of our bodily and environmental influences.
The third category is different. When we are reconnected to God via the Holy Spirit, we are a new creation. Something has changed. We can trust God and modestly communicate with God. We are inhabited by God’s Spirit. Can we still ignore God? I have proven it. Can we resist sinful nature and the outside influence of Satan. I can. Am I still buffeted by internal and external influences that could determine my actions? I am. I am not Adam and Eve free. I am not Dr. Sapolsky captive either.
The implications of this are great. I can have a whole family tree shot through with addiction, fits of rage, sexual infidelity, or something else; but I can break these chains and live differently and possibly even pass down better actions that are both learned and genetic (if we can imprint our genetics at all). A criminal life can be abandoned for a godly life. A godly life can be renounced for a sinful one.
God wants us to be free. Love is free, and God wishes for us to love Him. He loves us. This fact and the change of the status of our free will explains why our salvation must be all grace and all done by God, but the preservation of our faith includes an element of our choice. We use God’s means (His Word and the Lord’s Supper) to stay connected to Jesus, but we are not forced to use them. Hopefully, our love and trust of God moves us to use them.
There must be a fourth category of human will. When we are in Heaven or when we are resurrected into a New Earth, we will have bodies and brains and a soul. Will it be free? I want to be free, but I don’t want to fall away again or even face the possibility. What will hold onto us for eternity? We don’t really have an answer to this question.
Giving Christ 