There are many differences
that result when you read “Is Everything Determined” and “Parable of the
Kingdom.” In Parable of the Kingdom you
read about the Christian ways and how we do not have the free will to determine
what will happen in the future. We may
think that we are making a very smart decision but in the end this may be
reprimanded by a force we cannot control.
This was shown through the ten talents excerpt in parable of the
kingdom. Talents were delivered to
servants, most of the servants used these talents and grew from them, gaining
even more talents on their own. But one
servant decided that the best decision for him would be to keep his talent stashed
away and not even so much as to look at it until the lord came, but this turned
out to be the wrong thing to do. The Lord
said to him “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” which proves the fact that in this
reading no matter whether you know if you are doing right or not, you will
never know what will come of it until it actually happens because things have
already been determined for you. Which is
why this is different from the Is Everything Determined text. In this reading Stephen Hawking makes the
statement that “One cannot base ones conduct on the idea that everything is
determined, because one does not know what has been determined.” I think that these examples are dissimilar because
it shows that in the parable of the kingdom these people have a predetermined
destiny so no matter what they decided to do with their life, the result will
come out a certain way. In is everything
determined it contradicts this statement claiming that we will never know if
everything is determined because how do we actually know what is right and what
is wrong? How did the servant know that hiding his talent would lead to him
being chastised instead of honored? I
think that this is the point that Stephen Hawking was trying to portray to the
readers.
I disagree with you. Stephen Hawkings discusses how the theory of everything being predetermined is not a logical conclusion because of free will, amongst other things, while the parables show how one should properly act using their free will. The parable of the 10 talents is talking about how one servant decided to keep what they were given to themselves and hide it because they were not given as much as the others, in the end this servant was punished for these actions because he did not make use of his talents. Whereas if he had made use of his talents he would not have been punished, showing that he had the ability of free will.
ReplyDeleteBoth of the readings seem to be more different then alike, but they do share the one big picture. In “Is Everything Determined?” by Stephen Hawking. “The argument for determinism has been based on science.” No one has control over their actions, there is no such theory that determines to be correct about a situation. Your life is already planned out, I think it works like this as well, I think god has set our life already but we he gives us that ability to still be able to choose what we want. And we just have to live it, our story is already written. The readings join together because they both talk about wanting to know how the world actually works either we should live the way we want or by only pleasing god and always having our eyes for him. “The initial configuration of the universe may have been chosen by God, or it may itself have been determined by the laws of science.” In “Parables of the Kingdom” It isn’t really similar but the idea they give is somewhat alike to the other reading. In Parables of the Kingdom it talk’s more of how we should do everything in favor of God. There is no type of free will, we should do everything to please god. But in the reading the 5 virgins that were foolish that didn’t take the oil with them wanted to see him but were a little foolish and lost the ability to see him.
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