Free Will and the Seven Stages to Christian Maturity

There were two issues that were foundational to this intellectual quagmire I found myself in. First was the problem of universal selfishness—I discovered, to my horror, that all my choices were essentially selfish, and I viewed everyone else through these dark-tinted spectacles as well. I saw no way out of this labyrinth. Not only did my will seem trapped, I was led to believe it didn’t exist at all, for our biology book plainly stated that man is a product of his environment and heredity, and thus all choices must be predetermined by outside forces. Therefore, free will was an illusion, which negated love, which in turn called God into question—at least, the god of the Bible who is declared to be the judge of all. For how could he be just if we haven’t the capacity to choose?