Chapter 12 - Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins

Summary

If theological determinism is true, then everything that occurs in our world is willed by God. Since there is clearly much suffering and sin in this world, the theological determinist seems forced to accept that suffering and sin are willed by God as well. This seems to lead to a troubling conclusion concerning our ordinary reactions to extreme suffering and serious sin in the world. Plausibly, we should be horrified by sin and suffering, but it also seems that we should be thankful whenever we believe God’s will is fulfilled. This sort of double-mindedness might seem problematic, either because it is conceptually or psychologically impossible, or because it is immoral to be thankful for sin and suffering. In this chapter, I argue that the problem of double-mindedness is not as bad as it might first appear, both because such a mental state seems appropriate in certain cases even if theological determinism is false, and because thankfulness for sins will not be common even in the lives of virtuous divine determinists.