song for theme #11B: Free Will

“Hymn #11: To Kill With Free Will” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of a medley of “Thick as a Brick” (first and last verses only)

                                          and (all the rest) “Hymn #42” both by Ian Anderson / Jethro Tull

I really don’t care to enter this fray

As to our free will I can’t really say

I won’t interfere if you want to pray

May even laugh as you children play

As you ponder the character of God [echo]

His choices should you applaud? [echo]

On Earth you continue to trod  [echo]

And to kill with free will

Thank you God in Heaven

For giving me free will

Allowing me to freely choose

Who I’m gonna kill

But if God is love

And He’s all powerful

Then He won’t allow me

To bash in someone’s skull

Thank you omnipotent God¹

With your all knowing skill

You made the logical choice

Not to grant me free will

But what kind of God

Would condemn my soul to Hell

For behavior He pre-ordained

By not granting me free will?

Thank you omniscient God²

For giving me free will

You know what I’m gonna do

But still you let me kill

Yet if God is all knowing

But not all powerful

Then He can’t stop me

From bashing in your skull

Thank you God in Heaven

For giving me free will

Allowing me to freely sin

And earn my place in Hell

Do we shape our own destinies

Or follow God’s will on our knees?

I’ve watched you puzzle this out

Over logical fallacies seen you pout

You can’t figure this character God [echo]

You can’t seem to give Him the nod [echo]

Yet on Earth you continue to trod [echo]

And to sin with a grin.

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1,2— Many conceive of God as all powerful (omnipotent) and all knowing (omniscient), with infinite knowledge and power. 

         Invoking infinity can lead to difficulty and contradiction.  Here’s a relevant one, provided by cybernetic pioneer Norbert

        Wiener: “Can God make a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it?  If He cannot, there is a limit to His power…if He can, this

         seems to constitute a limitation to His power too.”  Those who value free will have qualified God’s omniscience by

         restricting it to knowing everything that can be known–excluding the free choices human agents will make in the future. 

         Restricting God’s knowledge in this regard can be avoided, but it comes at the expense of restricting His power: by assuming

         God knows everything that is to happen in the future, but lacks the power to do anything to alter that future.

Comment: Coping mechanisms of those valuing free will may differ from those used by fatalists. The former may prefer engagement coping, aimed at directly dealing with the stress; the latter may opt for disengagement /avoidance, where one is resigned to suffering and makes no effort to deal with the stress.