Examining Religious Determinism

Scriptural Analysis: Examining Religious Determinism Through excerpts from the Torah and Quran Allison Brown Middle Eastern Religions Dr. Ward 26 September, 2020 The argument about “religious determinism” or essentiality that of free will in terms of monotheistic Middle Eastern religions, has been on the minds of biblical scholars and has made believers globally ponder free will from the different biblical texts and the views of Judaism and Islam for centuries. In recent decades especially, the free will debate has heightened. The reason for contention is clear, if one lacks free will and their movements and actions are determined by a higher power, how does this allow for prevention of sin or the choices to decide one’s own life? In this essay, I will briefly examine a scripture from each of the aforementioned religions that relates to the argument of free will to create essentially a snapshot of what two different scriptures from the Torah and Quran reveal about free will. To start, one of the most referenced scriptures in the debate over determinism is the fifth book of the Jewish Torah, Deuteronomy, or “Devarim”. In short, the book is composed of speeches from Moses given to the Israelites in Moab before they enter the Promised Land, postforty years of wanderings in the desert after being freed from slavery in Israel. The popular verse among advocates for free will is as following: “This day, I call upon heaven and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned] you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that you and your offspring will live;”1 2 In this passage, Moses is informing the Israelites that they have a choice to make given to them through God, that of life and death, or the blessing and the curse. In this very statement, Moses is confirming that the Israelites have free will. Biblical commentator and English nonconformist Protestant nearly three-hundred years ago, Matthew Henry observes the following, “Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness and dreads misery. So great is the compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a knowledge of good and evil as will make them forever happy … If they and theirs would love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly be their3r. uTinh”is analysis of the first 1 portion of this line in the Torah from a Protestant centuries after its publication lays the basis for the free will argument of Deuteronomy 30:19, that individuals can choose between life and death, and if they choose life, they “should” be able to move throughout their life happily, therefore, their choice between the blessing and the curse is one that an individual may make independently, an exercise of their own autonomy. In the next portion of this line the preference of Moses and God is clear, make your own decision and “choose life”. Free will is alluded to throughout Judaism in various other passages in the Torah and in the Maimonides and in the comments of Bahya ben Joseph Ibn Pakuda. A Jewish philosopher and Rabbi in his Pedagogical value of Jewish Law, he is adamant that free will and divine predestination work hand in hand. Bahya insists that human reason and autonomy is ultimately 4 what dictates one life and that one can decide to conquer their own . This sin leads Bahya to the bold, free will, confirming statement that the “ … power of one’s own self-determination is a man’s privilege”5. Looking to a different religion and set of scriptures, the Quran offers its own thoughts and interpretations regarding free will. One of most notable being Verse 286: “Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon6 us." 7 This scripture essentially states that a soul will be met with the consequence of its actions and will face the consequences of the “evil it has earned”. Through a person meeting the consequences of their actions, this shows that an individual has autonomy over their own actions. A profound and notable work on free will in Islam is The Doctrine of Kasb according to Imām al-Ashʿarī. This Islamic Doctrine, according to William Watt, is “... sometimes attributed to al- 2 Ash’ari, but … [he] frequently uses the accounts and views of other wri8.teUrs” nderstanding then that this Doctrine is composed of various thoughts of Muslim scholars and religious figure heads, its argument regarding free will is thus encompassing of the beliefs of Imams and different scholarly thoughts. The consensus of free will is ultimately that, according to Imām alAshʿarī,“all actions, good and evil, are originated by Allāh, but they are “acquired” b9y. men Individuals themselves do not initiate what they face, they simply face what Allah has designated for them. Therefore, an individual’s responsibility comes from their decision as to which set of difficulties they face in their live10s . Contention and argument exists with this statement, one of the most posed issues with it is that many believe that Allah himself is not an “evildoer” and that he is independent of his creation on Earth, therefore, how could he allow for evil to exist because of Allah’s actions11 ? To conclude, as evident by the scripture and doctrine examples examined in this paper, contention and argument exists within the debate for free will. In Judaism, “choose life” leads much of the discourse with free will. And in Islam, Verse 286 and the Doctrine of Kasb according to Imām al-Ashʿarī create a dialogue of Allah’s intentions and free choice of humanity. The debate surrounding free will and religious determinism has existed for centuries and will continues within Islam and Judaism and with the addition of Christianity and other modern religious dialogues. 3