Opposing Viewpoints on Free Will and Their Implications - A Study from Scientific and Theological Perspectives

• Main Authors: KO, YAO-TING, 柯耀庭
• Other Authors: PENG, SHENG-YU
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/35pg2y

碩士 === 基督教台灣浸會神學院 === 基督教神學研究所 === 105 === The problem of free will has been an important theological issue for long, because it is strongly related to salvation and the sovereignty of God. Recently, because of the significant progress in the study of human behavior and the brain, free will has also become an important research theme in science. In this thesis, we aimed to understand free will more clearly by discussing both theological and scientific viewpoints on it. We first discussed several important viewpoints about free will in theology, and pointed out that St. Augustine’s theory of free will, which maintains that free will and the sovereignty of God are compatible, is the most appropriate one. Then we discussed scientific challenges to free will from determinism, reductionism, and empirical studies. Our conclusions not only rejected the validity of those challenges and supported the existence of free will, but also indicated that free will is compatible with those challenges. We further discussed the similarities between the compatibility in theology and that in science. Also, we discussed what determinism could affect free will, and vice versa. Finally, we identified what scientific and theological studies could have their unique contributions to the problem of free will.