Divine Will - A critique
Types of Determinism
Determinism can be causal, which is a more pragmatic approach to it. Other forms include theological determinism, fate-based determinism, and predeterminism.
Theological Determinism
These forms of determinism, particularly the theological kind, have implications for concepts like free will and moral accountability, both of which are challenged by the idea of "God's Plan." Theological determinism is the concept that a God either has knowledge of all events that will happen (weak theological determinism) or that every event that happens is predetermined by God (strong theological determinism).
I won’t go into whether God’s plan and free will coexist or not, though the concept of compatibilism is also extremely interesting to explore.
Problems with Theological Determinism
Theological determinism relies heavily on the theoretical and ontological nature of God, with no verifiability. It's a comforting notion, and it provides a sense of order and purpose.
But saying all events happen as per God's plan is as meaningful as saying all empty spaces contain invisible, undetectable unicorns. Without a way to test or validate our hypotheses, theological determinism, despite its appealing nature, will fail to rigorously explain the workings of the universe.
There needs to be a way to falsify a claim for it to be considered valid. Without falsifiability, anything that can be thought of can be considered true.
Scientific Determinism: Laplace's Demon
Determinism has been explored scientifically as well with thought experiments such as Laplace's Demon and the famous question of whether God plays dice with the universe.
What is Laplace's Demon?
Laplace's Demon can be thought of as a God in the sense that the being is omniscient and knows the position and momentum of every atom in the universe. The Demon should theoretically be able to predict the future. Practically speaking, this idea is the closest we can get to describing a being capable of determining the future.
Practical Issues with Predictability
Sounds great, right? Just look for a Laplace's Demon and you’ve found yourself a God! Unfortunately, such a being will be impossible to find due to the probabilistic nature of quantum systems.
Now, if it is impossible for a being that can merely predict the future to exist, one that not only predicts but controls the entire future is even less likely to exist.
Chaotic Systems and Uncertainty
An argument can be made that, on a macro scale, events can still be predicted through a set of rules, like we do with projectiles in classical mechanics, and perhaps that's how God does it.
Chaos and the Butterfly Effect
It's possible to predict certain events by just knowing some aspects of macroscopic systems, but we can’t predict all, and definitely not to a certainty. Chaotic systems are a great example of that, where even the smallest change in initial conditions can make a huge difference in outcome (you might be familiar with the butterfly effect), implying even for a macroscopic system, microscopic changes can be significant.
Conclusion
This leaves us with an answer to our question: we cannot predict the outcome of God's dice as, like with every other attribute of God, his dice are better than any dice we can know. No one can predict that outcome, not even God.
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