Is There Or Is There Not Free Will?

Someone wrote: "Free will is an illusion, there is only the divine will."

I'm glad that person brought up this subject because many fall in to this error. The reason for the error is that they attribute to God human thought processes and intentions, and undeveloped human thought processes and intentions at that.

The correct teaching is this:

"Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given. The world is judged with goodness, and all is according to the abundance of good deeds."- Ethics of the Fathers, 3:19

Human beings are capable of reaching the level of apprehending how it is possible that something is foreseen by God, yet free will is given in order to allow us to choose to do good deeds, upon which the world is established.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

The key phrase is "retain the ability to function". If one cannot still function one has fallen victim to doublethink.

What determines whether one has an ace mind or is the victim of doublethink is one's intentions. If one's intentions are to elevate and liberate Humankind, then holding two opposed ideas in the mind is *paradox*. If the intention is not pure, holding two opposed ideas in the mind is *contradiction*.

"The world is judged with goodness, and all is according to the abundance of good deeds." This last part of the quote explains why the first part is the case.

Those who judge the world with goodness *want* others to have free will. And their will makes it so.

The key phrase is "retain the ability to function". If one cannot still function one has fallen victim to doublethink.

What determines whether one has an ace mind or is the victim of doublethink is one's intentions. If one's intentions are to elevate and liberate Humankind, then holding two opposed ideas in the mind is *paradox*. If the intention is not pure, holding two opposed ideas in the mind is *contradiction*.

"The world is judged with goodness, and all is according to the abundance of good deeds."

It *is* the Divine Will that we will have free will in order to be able to choose to do the good.

Likewise, people who judge the world with goodness *want* others to have free will, and their will makes it so.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com