I first read the parables of the kingdom, and
during the whole time I read it was that there is something or someone who has
in a way predetermined the way we think and the decisions we make. I grew up in a family that was heavily
involved in the church and attended regularly, so I have heard these parables
all before. Once I read the Stephen Hawkins
paper “Is everything determined” I immediately made a connection. He starts out by saying, “The argument for
preordination used to be that god was omnipotent and outside time, so god would
know what was going to happen.” By saying
this I feel like Stephen is making a direct reference to the Parables of the
Kingdom I first read, and is trying to say that up until just a short time that
most people believed that god, or a ultimate being controlled and determined
everything we did, and nobody really thought to much about it and lived there
life. Stephen never really comes out and
eliminates the possibility at their being an all-powerful that makes our
decisions for us, but does hint he feels there are much more mathematically sound
possibilities. In the first reading of
the parables they are taken from the bible, so everything about them supports
the claim that there is an all-powerful god that created us and is controlling everything
we do. Stephen Hawking’s being the
genius he is and believing in the laws of science over everything else offers a
different theory of his own understanding of determinism; so that is a pretty
evident difference in the two. Stephen
also gives a lot of textual support and good examples for us as the reader to
use to better grasp what he is saying, but I also like how he never really says
that the idea of a god is not true, and keeps that door open. Its as if he is saying that is a possibility
but there is also another possibility in this other way in which he believes
more strongly. That to me is almost a
perfect example of people unsure if they actually have free will and if the decision
they make is the right decision, and if that decision was ultimately decided
that they would choose it before they even came to it.
I love how Stephen Hawking’s doesn’t completely downplay the possibility of god existing, but he does lean more towards a mathematical probability of determinism. I find it interesting that many people believe in god, and that god is almighty and knows what is going to happen before it happens. Many of these same individuals believe that everyone has free will, and believe that the criminal justice system should put people in jail for unlawful conduct. This is extremely illogical and I fear that a large portion of our society thinks like this. If god can foresee the future do we humans really have free will? Stephen Hawking’s says that if this is the case free will is only an illusion because our actions have already been determined. The fault with the mathematical formula for determinism is that the world is far too complex to account for a single formula. A single formula explaining determinism seems far fetch, because to many things take place in the world and I don’t feel a formula could explain why all these events take place. He talks about a grand unified theory and he says “How can a relatively simple and compact theory give rise to a universe that is as complex as the one we observe, with all its trivial and unimportant details?” He then begins to explain the uncertainty principle which is a solid counter argument to the question. I really enjoy this reading because Stephen Hawking does a great job of explaining both sides of an argument, which gives the reader the option to choose what he/she wants to believe in.
ReplyDelete“The Parable of the Kingdom” was also very interesting, I really enjoyed “The Prodigal Son” which is about two sons who inherit their fathers riches. One of the sons squanders the money and has to ask his father for forgiveness which he is granted and the father even cooks the biggest cow for the son. The other son who hadn’t messed up was jealous and the father told him he should be happy for his brother because he was lost and now he has found himself. When I tie this back to determinism is all seems pointless. Why even exist if everything has a set beginning and end. The bible is a clear representation that destiny exist. This depresses me because if the bible is true we do not have free will and it is only an illusion.