by Gary C. Gibson

Created on: June 03, 2009   Last Updated: January 20, 2012

Perhaps free will and determinism simultaeously exist as facts of material ontology. Yet spiritual transcendence of the material such as we find in some forms of secular-spirituality such as abstract thought may increase the ranges of freedom sufficiently to ovecome the mundane determinist realm of the material world or Universe.

The philosophical question regarding the free will of mankind is one of the oldest; ancient Babylonian astrologers thought the stars controlled the destiny of any individual pre-determining his or her course through life. Determinism is the belief that universal events pre-determine human free will. The belief that free will is only illusory is easy enough for many to believe if they consider the spirit of a human being to be of the same nature as the material element comprising the body. One can see how the oceans are moved in tides by the gravitational field of the moon for instance, and extrapolate that physical forces such as gravity also control the mass of any one too.

Mathematical development of algebra led to methods for constructing multi-dimensional matrices of sets and groups that can be taken to represent the dimensional configurations of the material world. Can abstrract,spiritual thought one day invent math models with moredimensions that that of the real world yet comprehensive of it? If such spiritual liberty iis actualized could it also moderate entirely naturally determined material systems for the good and bad? Is that a reason why God reduced mankind's status as 'little gods' into the original sinned mortal criteria of childbirth, labor death and such?

What would be the consquences of absolute free will without absolute wisdom and goodness such as good has? If evveryone alive became bright enought to create their own material ontology facts would the reconstructed Unniverse be torn in six billion seperate direction (at least freely?). Surpassing the natural limitis of deterministic materiality would present definite dangers for a culture sufficiently spiritually advanced-at least advanced in some forms of spirituality.

The mass, material nature of the human body can also serve the more irrationally inclined as a justification for belief in absolute free will. With all things being material and the mind meaninglessly isolated phenomenally in a universe of meaningless mass why shouldn't persona;l egoism be the self-determining fact in the ocean of anarchy? Free will is consciousness and spiritual able to transcend

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