tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post110121387388463693..comments2024-02-28T22:20:44.497-05:00Comments on Terry Pruitt's Blog: My Own Freewill Journeypruittcommunicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01644765530747792593noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101300429130920042004-11-24T07:47:00.000-05:002004-11-24T07:47:00.000-05:00Oh by the way, the article on Open Theism is an ex...Oh by the way, the article on Open Theism is an excellent summery of the ideas associate with the movement. It was a link on the Fatalism article referenced by Jeremy.pruittcommunicationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01644765530747792593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101300050491778492004-11-24T07:40:00.000-05:002004-11-24T07:40:00.000-05:00Both your references are good. Thanks for sharing...Both your references are good. Thanks for sharing. I will concede the point that I should be more precise, however, usage and not prescribed definitions is the meaning that a word has. When one uses an unconventional usage, reactions to the communication and critiques of that communication, formal or informal, determine whether a person can continue to make an unconventional usage of a word. I can't change what happened to me 20 some years ago in Geometry class, nor can we go back and get my teacher to change his usage since he has passed into eternity. I think his usage was not your formal usage, however, it worked. It shook me up. It got me to reconsider my assumptions. I assumed I was giving people maximum freedom in my theology of freewill. In reality, I created a system of merit vice grace and made people a slave to the freewill. In my freewill system of theology, if you think about it, God serves the freewill. I think the determinism was more what he should have said, but fatalism is what he said at first. <br /><br />I can't really seperate the affection I have for my geometry teacher from these posting. So if I belabor the point, apologies.pruittcommunicationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01644765530747792593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101274669254274752004-11-24T00:37:00.000-05:002004-11-24T00:37:00.000-05:00The Merriam-Webster definition you give isn't wron...The Merriam-Webster definition you give isn't wrong, but it's not precise enough. The Oxford English Dictionary says something even more vague, but then it clarifies: "In strict etymological propriety, and in the best modern usage, it is restricted to the view which regards events as predetermined by an arbitrary decree."<br /><br />Donald Bloesch seems to understand what's missing from the MW defition <A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fmb-soft.com%2Fbelieve%2Ftxn%2Ffatalism.htm">here</A>. He compares fatalism to those who think God's elect will be saved no matter what they do, even if they don't believe. That's the difference between fatalism and determinism. <A HREF="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFatalism">This Wikipedia entry</A> also is more careful than the MW definition. Dictionaries are notoriously bad for getting precise philosophical concepts wrong, and I'm glad to see the OED acknowledging that both the original meaning and the more careful current usages are distinct from determinism.Jeremy Piercehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03441308872350317672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101256492688550332004-11-23T19:34:00.000-05:002004-11-23T19:34:00.000-05:00Thanks Adrian!Thanks Adrian!pruittcommunicationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01644765530747792593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101253602266747192004-11-23T18:46:00.000-05:002004-11-23T18:46:00.000-05:00Thanks for this it is ace. I have just posted som...Thanks for this it is ace. I have just posted some more on this subject over at<br />http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2004/11/u-unconditional-election-five-points.htm<br />Do pop over and read some more, I have promoted your post there also.Adrian Warnockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12153686724298326405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101253058199094882004-11-23T18:37:00.000-05:002004-11-23T18:37:00.000-05:00Jeremy, thanks for your comments. I would agree t...Jeremy, thanks for your comments. I would agree that I was not the Greek fatalist while in high school. But using the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary definition, "fa·tal·ism Function: noun : a doctrine that events are fixed in advance so that human beings are powerless to change them" I did fit that definition. I beleived so much in the "freewill" that it became a seperate organ sort of a thing that determined our fate. I think the Greeks had the stars or something determining that. Let me be careful to say that I do see that we have freedom and we have a will, but neither are absolute. God is absolute.pruittcommunicationshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01644765530747792593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816469.post-1101236440864854372004-11-23T14:00:00.000-05:002004-11-23T14:00:00.000-05:00Your teacher was wrong. Determinism says that we w...Your teacher was wrong. Determinism says that we would do the same thing every time if faced with exactly the same circumstances (of course, we might do something different in virtually indistinguishable but slightly different circumstances). Fatalism is a much stronger claim. It says we'd do the same thing no matter what the circumstances are (e.g. all those Greek myths where people try as hard as they might to avoid their fate, but it happens anyway). Determinists deny that. They say that different circumstances are what cause different choices. You can't consistently believe both.Jeremy Piercehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03441308872350317672noreply@blogger.com