Explain what is meant by hard determinism and with reference to the religion you have studied
The questions behind free will and determinism are principally concerned with the level of autonomy we have in acting out our lives, and to what extent actions are predestined. Hard determinism, as the name suggests, partakes of one of the extreme ends of the scale whereby every event that occurs has a cause: all human actions have an incitement beyond their control, and our ability to make decisions is an illusion. ... We can only attribute moral blame or praise to actions that are freely undertaken – hard determinism says that therefore we are almost captive robots manipulated by circumstance under the denied possibility of making moral choices. ... Hard determinism therefore maintains that all actions have a prior cause, and that humans are not free to act in the way we think we are. ... Many Christians cannot accept that hard determinism could possibly the case. ... ” 8:28-30 In this sense, Christians can agree with hard determinism, in that the omniscient creator knows exactly the future course of events, and already knows those who will be saved, and those who will not.