I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will. The Jews believe in free will. They believe that man shapes his own life. I reject that doctrine philosophically. In that respect I am not a Jew… I believe with Schopenhauer: We can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must.
Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act is if freedom of the will existed.
If I wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a responsible being.
"I claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control.
It is determined for the insect as well as for the star.
Human being, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to an invisible tune, intoned in the distance by a mysterious player.
--Albert Einstein, from an interview, in 1929, with George Sylvester Viereck.
I share Albert Einstein's understandings that each of us must take responsibility for our decisions, with my experience informing me that I am being counselled by a reality beyond my understanding. The mechanics of the source of that wise counselling entering my conscious understandings does not interest me.
The Father's relationship with me, and every human person matters more than any attempt to enter into an academic debate on the reality of the Divine Mystery.
“Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God.”
― Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
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