Do people with personality disorders, schizophrenia, brain damage, obsessions and compulsions, dementia, autism really and truly have the free will that others have?
2006-12-28 02:05:30 · 35 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Of course they have the necessary freewill. That ability is impaired does not destroy that faculty. Freewill issues from the heart.
Consider too that God is very kind and loving and full of goodness and wants to save. He Who spared not His own Son for us while we were yet enemies is going to find a way for you if you are but willing.
For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him, 2 Samuel14/14.
2006-12-28 04:39:08 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Good question. Excellent question, in fact, since I have been into enough mental hospitals and have had enough diagnoses laid on me to know something about this.
I think there is AN ELEMENT of free will even in the most horrible madness. The element differs under different circumstances, however, and it is clear that a person tortured by demons does not get much comfort out of the concept that those demons are "all in your head." Indeed, and I WANT THEM OUT! One example of free will, however, is the person whose disability is controlled by medication and who nevertheless makes the free will choice to discontinue the medication.
But clearly such people do not have the same degree of free will as a person who is, more or less, in their right mind. All such terms are quite relative, and no one except the person themselves can ever really know just how much free will is in it.
We do have to try for compassion no matter how frustrating such people tend to be. We need compassion all over the place, anyway, so maybe these diagnostic tags are not so important after all, eh?
Just go on doing the best you can and be as honest with yourself as you can manage, and don't worry about someone else's free will unless you are called to sit on a jury. Then, unfortunately, you will have to confront the particulars.
2006-12-28 02:13:56 · answer #2 · answered by auntb93again 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If everyone in the entire human race is guilty and stands condemned before the Lord anyway, God has allowed for a covenant to exist between Himself and the ones he chooses to be saved. This covenant exists in infant baptism, where those in authority over the infants -- or in your case, the mentally deficient -- would hold responsibility for those under their care that are "marked" as God's own property, to be raised accordingly. Those not marked -- well, don't we have enough faith in God to allow him to make the right decision instead of separating the sheep from the goats ourselves?
2006-12-28 07:43:40 · answer #3 · answered by ccrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I also question free will here. what if God created souls with free will. what if some souls couldn't leave fathers side for the loss of the love, other souls ventured out and found this place "earth" once the soul chooses to come here it the soul continues to return using free will until it gets tired of this place. dual personalities could be residue from past lives. perhaps it is the soul not the human with the free will?
2006-12-28 02:25:04 · answer #4 · answered by happy_kko 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any meaningful exercising of free will is an illusion. It is a concept that had to be invented by man to make the whole 'control people with religion' thing work. People in the middle ages had no awareness of psychology, so It was easy to convince them that free will was real. There is no excuse today other than stupidity.
2006-12-28 02:24:23 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Freewill is a question of whether one's actions are deterministic or nondeterministic. If your brain is deterministic, then you don't really have freewill because you have a fixed reaction to any input you have. If your brain is nondeterministic, it can have several possible outcomes for a certain input. There are multiple paths you can go given the environment you're in.
People with personality disorders would still have brains that are as deterministic or nondeterministic as any others. If our brains are ultimately deterministic, then a disfunctional brain would still be deterministic. We'd have the same lack of freewill.
Perhaps the locus of responses to given situations varies, but that doesn't really affect whether one has freewill or not.
2006-12-28 02:11:24 · answer #6 · answered by nondescript 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Freedom is the opportunity to be responsible for your own behaviors. A person with a serious mental deficit, that prevents them from being responsible is not able to express free will. They need to have another person that controls their life for them. Sometimes they can learn to become responsible in limited ways but still require monitoring.
2006-12-28 02:11:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps not in the same capacity, but I think they have some measure of free will. C.S. Lewis remarked that "God will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome." So, I believe that God will have a method for determining how someone with a mental inability to understand the verbal gospel will find a way for this person to know Him. Romans 1:20 says as much, everyone is without excuse.
2006-12-28 02:08:21 · answer #8 · answered by STEPHEN J 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
I really do not know. That is a great question. I do know that we have a fair GOD and HE will JUDGE all of man/womankind. I imagine that if the person is unable to discern the difference in reality and fiction then they will be held account to what they can be. This is one of the best questions today!! Have a great week.
Eds
2006-12-28 02:17:00 · answer #9 · answered by Eds 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Everything that the Bible says about God portrays Him as just and loving. Most of us believe that those with real mental disorders won't be held to the same standard as the rest of us.
2006-12-28 02:15:52 · answer #10 · answered by luvwinz 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋