There are both cultural factors and individual factors that influence my beliefs. For example, our country was founded on Christian ideals. Still, there are many Christian beliefs and ideals throughout our society, and it is the largest religion in America. …show more content…
Another cultural factor is that I grew up in a very religious town and a very religious home. This, of course, impacted what I believed, and what I experienced while I was growing up. One individual factor that influences my beliefs is that I am a Christian. I became a Christian out of my own thoughts and my own beliefs, and being a Christian influence everything that I believe, say, do, etc. Another individual factor is that I am a girl. Being a girl influences some of my beliefs, and if I were a guy then those beliefs may change. My religion doesn’t believe in female preachers. They believe that women shouldn’t have to preach because there should be a Godly man willing to step up. However, because I am a girl, I find myself believing that it is okay for women to be preachers. It is also definitely possible that my beliefs may be different if I grew up in a different culture. I hate to say it, but my religion may have changed if I grew up in a different culture. I like to still believe that I would eventually come to know God on my own, but growing up in a family, a town, a state, and a country, where Christianity was very prominent definitely made it easier. It is definitely …show more content…
Philosopher William James believed in free-will, and he believed that it was necessary if we were to hold others accountable. I also agree that free will is necessary if we want to hold people accountable for their actions. Without free-will, there will always be an excuse for someone's actions. It would be easy to just say that it was “meant to happen” and that they couldn’t help their actions because they had no choice. With free-will, we are held accountable because they were our individual choices that we made using our own free-will. I know that I have free will because I am capable of making my own decisions. Many people wonder if God already knows everything, then how do we really have free will? Free-will still exists, it’s just that God’s knowledge is above ours and he knows everything that we will choose. He doesn’t force the decisions on us, he just knows which one we will choose. I know I know I have free will because there are consequences to my actions. If we had no free will and if we were like robots, everything should be perfect. But because I am imperfect, and because I make my own imperfect decisions, there are consequences. The simple answer to this question would be faith. I guess we never really know anything, but I believe that I have free will, and I believe that God has blessed us with being able to make our own decisions and our own