In response to my post:
When someone doesn't get you (or more specifically doesn't understand compatibilism), Valentine's Day Edition:
@aspin3 going by "All for His Glory" responded:
Francis, as a compatiblist, what is ONE. Just ONE thing that a full theistic determinist would believe God decreed/determined that you would not agree with? Just one.
What you mean really is an illusion of choice and illusion of free not free to do other than God decreed/determined and no other alternative options available except that which God decreed/dtermined.
I respond:
As I said, Sot101 doesn't understand compatibilism. I assume this is why aspin3 is asking this question this way. Compatibilism is not a different level of determinism. One could be a compatibilist who rejects determinism, and likewise one could be a determinist who rejects compatibilism. Compatibilism is holding to thesis that free will is compatible with determinism. Sometimes the compatibility is expressed in terms of the compatibility of determinism and moral responsibility. I'll focus on the "free will" definition.
Considering the two different categories of "Determinist" in contrast to "Libertarian" and considering the question of Compatibilism in contrast to Incompatibilism, there are potentially four different positions among theists (I'm excluding atheists from this discussion).
1. Determinists who affirm Compatibilism
Determinists who affirm compatibilism say that God has determined human choices, and God's decree ultimately establishes the human choices that are free as free. (There could also be non-free human choices, but free human choices are free human choices because God decreed that they would be.)
2. Determinists who affirm Incompatibilism
Determinists who affirm incompatibilism say that God has determined human choices, therefore human freedom is, at most, just an illusion.
3. Libertarians who affirm Compatibilism
God has not determined human choices, but if God had done so, they would still really be human choices.
4. Libertarians who affirm Incompatibilism
God has not determined human choices, because if God had determined them, they wouldn't really be human choices.
Nearly all Provisionists (if not all) fall in camp 4, whereas nearly all Calvinists fall in camp 1 and certainly Westminster Confession of Faith Calvinists are in camp 1. There are probably some folks who fall into the category of Calvinist (broadly defined) who are in camp 2, but it is not the position of the "leading" Calvinists of the last 500 years. I don't know of anyone who holds to camp 3, though presumably someone could.
Now, to the question posed:
"what is ONE. Just ONE thing that a full theistic determinist would believe God decreed/determined that you would not agree with? Just one."
The difference between incompatibilist determinists and compatibilist determinists is not that we (compatibilists) believe God decreed different things. The difference is that we think God's decree established human freedom, rather than preventing human freedom.
And to the argument offered:
What you mean really is an illusion of choice and illusion of free not free to do other than God decreed/determined and no other alternative options available except that which God decreed/dtermined.
Claiming that free will is merely an illusion is an incompatibilist position. There might be some Calvinistic folks who hold that, but as mentioned above, it's not the usual position and it's certainly not the Confessional position.
Compatibilists say that there is a real sense in which people are free to do other than God decreed/determined, but that they inevitably will do what God has decreed/determined. For example, I have the ability to write a different blog post, but I freely wrote this blog post, just as God decreed I would freely do.
Likewise, compatibilists acknowledge that "other alternative options are available," but they simply insist that free humans will go with the option that God has decreed in advance they will freely select.
-TurretinFan
