by ProfDave, ©2022
(Jan. 24, 2022) — Not in the womb, perhaps, but at some point not long after, we begin to take actions that are not pre-programmed in our biology. This is most visible when we consciously choose to do the wrong thing. Why is it when we think of choice, we don’t think of choosing something right? Nobody has to teach us to lie or steal. We choose that for ourselves. Eventually someone notices and holds us responsible. A mature, healthy, human being is responsible.
Rabbit trail. I made the choice this morning not to say that I am pro-choice so that you wouldn’t get the wrong idea. I could say I’m pro-the-right-choice. It seems an unfortunate part of the human condition that we pit our autonomy against what is right. It is called the wrong choice. Just sayin.
The choice to kill one’s young is the last in a long series of unfortunate choices by two people. You did know that it takes two people, a man and a woman, to make a baby, didn’t you? Their sexual choices resulted in a brand-new human being, in the image of God. The man, usually in the stronger position, bears the greater responsibility. They didn’t get to choose the consequences and now they have a life and death choice. Right or wrong?
A human being is a creature who makes choices. Or not? Every time Ralph (not his real name) was asked about his behavior, he would say “I had no choice.” Someone else says, “I was born this way.” Is that true?
How free are we? Naturalism tells us that we are merely the sum of the electro-chemical reactions in our highly evolved brains. All our thoughts, feelings and choices are basically sparks flying back and forth in oatmeal. A combination of chance, conditioning and the laws of physics determine everything. These words I am typing are my biology. I have no choice.
So why is it when something goes wrong someone says I am responsible? Why did they lock Ralph up if he had no choice?
How free are we? Are we entirely determined by our biology as naturalism tells us? Are we biologically free to ask that question? In many ways we are not as free as we think we are. If the doctor hits my knee with his funny hammer, my leg will jerk. If something comes close to my eye, I will blink. If I smell bacon I will drool. If I even think about sex, something else happens. I have no choice.
Or do I? Once in a while I can actually walk past a piece of bacon without grabbing it! It is a struggle, but I call that a choice. Once in a while I can actually think about something else (just kidding).
Whether you believe in Freud or not, human beings have all the deep drives that any other animal has for survival and security, plus a few more: for intimacy (not just procreation), for belonging, for significance, for something more (eternity?). These drives motivate us powerfully. They could possibly be explained by our biology, but some hint at something else entirely. Please note that they may appear in different individuals as healthy or unhealthy. Do I have any choice?
“Scientific” naturalism inclines us to biological determinism. Biology is destiny. Freedom is an illusion. We are the sum of our biochemistry, the hormones and electrical impulses in our highly evolved brains. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. I was born that way. If you were born an addict that’s what you do.
How is it that I can sometimes walk past that rasher of bacon? Why can some even give up chocolate for Lent? Or, more seriously, give up sex because they are not married? Why can some people suspend their deepest drives for some invisible purpose? For example, a policeman can sacrifice his life for a stranger. Is that a choice or an aberration? When am I most free? When I fulfill my biology without hindrance or when I choose to lay down my life for a higher purpose?
Are our choices an illusion? Moods and emotions are determined by brain chemistry. “I’ve got no choice,” Ralph says. How much of your behavior is determined by your feelings? Then there are those habit patterns and defense mechanisms we developed in early childhood to get our needs met. You can “buck up” and push on for a while, like the tractor pull at the state fair, but the load gets heavier and heavier and the mud deeper and deeper. Unless someone comes and whisks the bacon away …
Anyone who has dealt with addiction knows what I am talking about. An addiction is nature off the rails – in pursuit of an end that cannot be fulfilled in the nature of things. We miss our destination and go off into deep space. For example, hunger is supposed to be satisfied by a healthy diet, but the pursuit of a sugar high only leads to more craving. A chain reaction takes over the pleasure chemistry and it isn’t satisfied when the stomach is full. The second dose only produces half the thrill. And so on. It works with substances, with sex, with co-dependency, gambling, shopping – you name it. Meanwhile we ruin ourselves and others.
But it gets worse. Brain chemistry and structure changes and the power of choice – the command-and-control part of the brain – erodes until, literally, “I’ve got no choice.” You don’t realize it until you hit the wall and try to stop. “We admitted we were powerless over out addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable” (Step 1).
So what is the human condition? A naked ape that, by virtue of the random alignment of biochemical and neural pulses, imagines it thinks and thinks it is making choices when in fact it is following immutable physical laws? And is thus, not responsible for its actions?
Or a naked will that brings itself into existence, defines its own existence, and creates its own reality, responsible only to itself? Is reality really imaginary? Really? Define ‘really.’ Was that the cause or the result of Nietzsche’s insanity? Isn’t insanity losing touch with reality? Hmmh.
Or perhaps a creature of God? The metanarrative of ethical monotheism, on which Western civilization is based, has a transcendent eternal Deity who controls everything. Not an atom in time and space is unknown or out of control. How then can mankind be free? And if we are not free how is it possible for us to do wrong, as we clearly do? How is it possible for us to love God, as the Judeo-Christian revelation commands? Determinism rears its ugly head again. But the Bible is full of God’s urging Israel and us to do the right thing, to love God and our fellow man. How is this possible if “I have no choice?”
How can that be? I can have a choice only because He gives it. And with freedom comes responsibility – and a moral universe.
We have been exploring the question, “What is a human being?” The Declaration of Independence said, “all men” – that’s human beings in 18th century language – “are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Such language assumes that a human being is a creature of God. Not all of us share that assumption today. But what if it were true?
According to the Judeo-Christian narrative, mankind was made in the image of God – with the god-like autonomy of choice. The choice: to love our Maker – or not. The choice to distrust and disobey ruined everything. Disconnecting from the Creator disordered every part of human nature and its environment. From our earliest consciousness we all experience a tendency to selfishness and rebellion. Our default mode is wrong, not right. The gift of choice misused has deteriorated. Our autonomy, from God rather than with God, can only be rebellion. If you can only choose wrong, how are you free?
Man is a creature of God who makes choices. But clearly, we are broken. Our biology is broken. The mechanism that continually replicates each cell of our body runs imperfectly. Instead of rejuvenating us flawlessly, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, it runs down and occasionally produces cancer. We die. Our neurochemistry is broken. We do not maintain healthy moods and desires. Our instincts often betray us. Our minds are broken. We forget, we are illogical and sometimes insane. Our spirits are broken. Disconnected from our Maker, we are dead to what is right and good and unable to choose it unaided. ‘Unaided’ is the key word.
Homo sapiens is a creature of God who makes choices. How this is possible has engaged philosophers and theologians for centuries and is beyond my pay grade. Materialist/naturalist theory says we have no choice. Theological determinism says we have no choice. Note to theologians: predestination is not the same as determinism. The addict’s (and homosexuals?) experience says we have no choice. But our conscience tells us we have a choice – we have a nagging awareness, despite our protests, when we are wrong. The Torah and the Bible say we have a choice. We are responsible to the Almighty.
“I’m not God. … I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing.” (Principle 1, Celebrate Recovery). That is the human condition. But we can “recognize” it.
Does choice and responsibility define the human condition or are we determined by outside forces, material, social or spiritual? In practice, and in the Christian world view, there are indeed many things that are determined. Our biology, our circumstances, the actions of others are out of our control. Every detail of our lives is by the Almighty’s permission. Worst of all, we find we cannot change ourselves. And yet the Judge of all the Earth holds us responsible. Hmmmh. Does that imply we really do have a choice?
We have no choice – of ourselves. Our chooser is broken. We habitually choose wrong. Even when, against all odds, we choose right, 10-1 it is for the wrong reasons. But God the Holy Spirit offers to intervene. There is yet that knife edge choice we can make: to say “yes.”
Never tried it myself, but do you have a choice when you are half-way down the waterslide? Not much you can do to change your direction and speed, is there? But you can say “no” – screaming in terror – or you can say “yes” – screaming in delight! That is the freedom of an addict, too. We cannot change our condition. The situation may be impossible, but we remain responsible moral agents. Is it a remnant of original freedom? A paper-thin remaining layer of functional cerebral cortex? A gift of prevenient grace? I believe everybody gets that gift of freedom at least once in their lives, “for God so loved the world.” And the resources of Heaven stand ready for “whosoever will.”
An addendum to our discussion of human freedom, drawn from my own experience of addiction. No one wanted to be good more than I did. But I found the effort self-defeating. You can’t live up to God’s standards so that He can approve of you. It doesn’t work that way. He has to approve of you first, then you can recover. The more transparent you are, the more flaws you see. Real change happens when the flaws are given to God and He makes you what He can use.
Where I thought I was doing well, I became a little Pharisee, judging others. Where I failed, I had to hide things from others, from God and from myself. And every time I fell, I became a little weaker, a little more cut off from God and others. That’s how addiction works.
In recovery, I have learned a three-part strategy. First, I admit that I am powerless, totally relying on the Lord and distrusting myself. Twice a day I beg Him to keep me clean. Secondly, I avoid temptations like the plague and have a battle plan. I know myself, I know my addiction, and I have accountability partners I can call any time of the day or night. But if I want to act-out, I can always get around it. God will let me! The phone weighs 500 lbs. Thirdly, while my will cannot defeat the addiction, no matter how hard I try, and God will not force me to be good if my heart is set on acting out, I can give Him permission to keep me. This I have learned through addiction and recovery. I cannot do good of my own power, but I can allow God to do good in me. So happy!
David W. Heughins (“ProfDave”) is Adjunct Professor of History at Nazarene Bible College. He holds a BA from Eastern Nazarene College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Holiness in 12 Steps (2020). He is a Vietnam veteran and is retired, living with his daughter and three grandchildren in Connecticut.