Each of our lives are shaped by multiple forces, by the friends that we choose, by the parents

we didn't choose, and by the socio-economic class background that we had little or no

control over.

So can we say that we are mainly the product of our background?

It's a question to us from an anonymous young man, a college student, who writes this.

Hello, Pastor John.

I'm majoring in psychology right now, and one of my professors is a, quote, radical

behaviorist, in quote, and I've recently taken a course in learning and behavior.

In this course, my instructor teaches that, according to BF Skinner's ideas, man is basically

a product of his environment and his reinforcements.

In other words, Skinner argued that we are mechanical and do not have free will because

we only act according to our reinforcements.

Is there objective information that refutes Skinner's ideas from a biblical perspective,

and is there evidence outside of the Bible that suggests that we do have free will?

We have to start with the definition of free will in terms of the behaviorists like Skinner,

because the behaviorists, he's saying, are the ones denying that we have it.

So we have to ask, what are they denying?

Just dump our definition in there and expect their statement to make any sense.

We have to know what they mean.

So what do they mean?

What does Skinner mean or the behaviorists mean when they deny that we have free will?

Well, he means human beings are unable in their natural capacities to choose contrary

...