A Great Misunderstanding

Today I ran across what is possibly one of the biggest misunderstandings in what I believe. Dr. William Lane Craig states on his website www.reasonablefaith.org that:

2. Universal causal determinism cannot be rationally affirmed. There is a sort of dizzying, self-defeating character to determinism. For if one comes to believe that determinism is true, one has to believe that the reason he has come to believe it is simply that he was determined to do so. One has not in fact been able to weigh the arguments pro and con and freely make up one’s mind on that basis. The difference between the person who weighs the arguments for determinism and rejects them and the person who weighs them and accepts them is wholly that one was determined by causal factors outside himself to believe and the other not to believe. When you come to realize that your decision to believe in determinism was itself determined and that even your present realization of that fact right now is likewise determined, a sort of vertigo sets in, for everything that you think, even this very thought itself, is outside your control. Determinism could be true; but it is very hard to see how it could ever be rationally affirmed, since its affirmation undermines the rationality of its affirmation.

For one, what I believe isn't that the direction I move and choices I make are determined by 'casual factors', but by a divine and sovereign God. But still, none of the decisions I make are outside my control. I am choosing to strike the keys on the keyboard right now, and I am choosing to write this blog post. It came from me. So how was it also predetermined that I would do so?

We all have motives for the actions we take. I read that quote, and it moved me to write this reaction, which is influenced by other things I've read in scriptures and thoughts from other authors. Furthermore, God knows me, down to the last cell. He made me, and thus knows how I will react to such influences. We all have a free will. The thing is, God crafted the universe down to the very last detail, and all of our personalities and characters, so that we would each make the decisions that we do. He created everything for the express purpose to influence his children; he knows what each and every one of us will do when each and every trial comes our way.

In a sense the argument expressed by Dr. Craig can still apply. Whereas I did come to this conclusion of my own free will, it is because God decided to craft the world that way. A sort of vertigo may set it, as he puts it, but also an extreme comfort, knowing that God is behind everything, and he loves you.