On the Comfort and Terror of Determinism
— or why it might not be your fault, after all

Posted by

Any power you have comes to you from far beyond. Everything is fixed, and you can't change it.
          — Jesus to Pilate in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar


There’s something both oddly comforting and deeply unsettling about determinism. On one hand, it means you're not to blame for that embarrassing thing you said in 2014. On the other, it means you might not be steering the ship at all.

Determinism is the idea that everything — your thoughts, your choices, your Spotify Wrapped — is the inevitable result of prior causes. Nothing happens without something causing it, and if we could rewind the universe and play it forward again, it would unfold the exact same way.

This idea isn’t new. The Stoics were early champions. They believed the cosmos runs on logos — divine reason, a kind of metaphysical cause-and-effect. Their advice? Since you can’t change fate, stop whining and align yourself with it. Your only freedom lies in your attitude. 

Fast forward a few centuries and you get to St. Augustine, who gave determinism a Christian spin. God, he said, is outside of time and knows everything that will happen — including your eternal fate. But don't panic! According to Augustine, you still have free will — just not in any way that contradicts God's perfect foreknowledge. Imagine playing chess against an omniscient being who lets you move your pieces, but always knows the endgame.

Then comes John Calvin, who turned the tension between divine foreknowledge and human freedom into a doctrine: predestination. You’re either chosen for salvation or you’re not. Nothing you do changes that. To modern sensibilities, it sounds like spiritual fatalism. But to Calvinists, it was a source of assurance—grace didn’t depend on human effort.

Then science showed up with its pocket protector and said, “Actually, it’s all atoms and laws.” The Newtonian universe was a clockwork machine. Every event had a cause, and every cause followed a law. Know the position of every particle and the forces acting on them, and you could, in theory, predict the entire future. Human decisions? Just billiard balls with opinions.

But it gets more personal in the 21st century.

In "Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will," neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky makes the case that even our sense of agency is a story we tell ourselves. Our choices, he argues, are shaped by genes, hormones, trauma, socioeconomic context, brain development — you name it. By the time “you” think you’re making a decision, your brain already made it.

Sapolsky isn’t being dramatic. He’s just reading the evidence. And he’s not alone. Increasingly, neuroscience and psychology are painting a picture of human behavior as a complex system of cause and effect, not a bastion of autonomy.

So what do we do with this?

We might, like the Stoics, focus less on control and more on character. Or we might, as Sapolsky suggests, rethink how we handle things like blame, punishment, and praise. If people aren’t ultimately responsible for their actions, then maybe our moral systems need updating. Not to absolve cruelty, but to make room for understanding.

Maybe we’re not free in the way we thought. But that doesn’t mean life is meaningless. It might mean our meaning lies in compassion, connection, and doing what we can with the wiring we’ve got.

Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.
       — Cleanthes



Further Reading: 

A sweeping, humane, and sobering tour through neuroscience, genetics, psychology, and philosophy—all leading to one conclusion: free will doesn’t exist, and that should make us more compassionate, not less.

The Enchiridion by Epictetus 
A pocket-sized Stoic manual on how to live in harmony with things outside your control. Practical, wise, and surprisingly modern for a 2,000-year-old philosopher.

The City of God by St. Augustine (Books V and XIV in particular) 
A foundational Christian text where Augustine wrestles with divine omniscience and human responsibility. Dense but rewarding.

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin 
Especially Book III, which deals with predestination. If you want to see determinism dressed in theological robes, this is the place.

Freedom Evolves by Daniel Dennett A philosopher's take on how a kind of free will compatible with science might still exist—not the libertarian kind, but enough to matter. 


Bonus Thought Experiment: 

 If you want to feel your lack of agency in real time, try catching the exact moment you “decide” to scratch your nose. You’ll find the action always begins before you consciously notice. Welcome to the club. And remember, you were always going to be here. 😉
Previous
Next