Waddan’s religiously supported view states that the Ten Commandments are only understandable if we are free to choose whether to obey them or not:
If God had been a libertarian, we’d have gotten the Ten Suggestions
(James P. Hogan)
If we are not free to do so then there is no point to their existence as sin is a concept outside our control. The teachings of Jesus are based upon the fact that we can freely choose. For example, if we are asked to repent then we must obviously be free to choose whether to repent or not to. The most common religious view concerning Libertarianism is that of R. Swinburne. This is the notion that God is within the boundaries of time. Therefore he sees the free choices human beings are making and is able to intervene, thus limiting our freedom yet not being capable of predestining our choices or decisions.
If we apply the Libertarianism view, whether the atheist or religious position, to this question then it is simple to understand that human beings would be considered completely free.
In direct contrast to this is the view of hard determinists. They believe that all our actions and decisions are predetermined by previous causes:
All our choices, decisions, intentions, other mental events, and our actions are no more than effects of other equally necessitated events
(Hondereich)
For example, choosing what the wear in the morning is effected by certain factors such as society and what is acceptable to wear, the weather, religion, amongst other causes. Scientific evidence for this relates to Isaac Newton’s Theory of Relativity that states for every action there is a positive or negative reaction, in a sense this is rather like the hard determinist theory. Our actions result from wants, wishes and motivations, which in turn are caused by specific conditions as mentioned previously. Sigmund Freud stated that the factors such as wants and wishes were the result of psychological conditioning; that our suppressed feelings produced by the human psyche (Id, Ego and Super ego) emerge uncontrollably later in life effecting your actions and decision.
Other theories relating to what effects the factors which influence our decision making include the idea of genetic conditioning which, as first discussed by Cesar Lombroso, suggests that our genes are responsible for shaping our behaviour. Therefore, any apparent choice is actually and illusion.
The similar religious stance to hard determinism is predestination. This is the notion that God had predestined every action before time began. John Calvin, who fashioned he own idea of this, Calvinism, in which he describes that although we are not free we are responsible for our actions. This is due to our natural bias to do wrong, which developed from the genetic bias which we are, as a race, responsible for due to Eve’s temptation to which we would have all succumbed to. Consequently, whether we follow predestination or hard determinism, human beings have no freedom at all.
Soft determinism, or compatibalism as it is known due to making the two previously discussed viewpoints compatible, states that we can acknowledge causality and predictability yet we can still be free:
The fact my action is causally determined…does not necessarily follow that I am not free
(A.J. Ayer)
We are making a choice within boundaries which are causally determined. Desires and intentions may determine our personality and values but our actual choice remains free. This is best explained by Internal and External causes. External causes, such as religion are determined whilst Internal causes, your own choice, are free. Therefore, we are still morally responsible for our actions even though determinism is present during our decision making. In this instance, human beings would be considered free to a certain extent yet not entirely.
In conclusion, to be capable of answering this question we must have decided upon our own interpretation of what it is to be free. If we are Libertarian we believe in ultimate free will for the entire human race, yet if we are a Hard Determinist then human beings have no freedom as everything is determined by past events, and if we believe in religious Predestination then God has already made the deciding choices in our lives. Therefore, an answer may only be relevant to those whom share the same opinion:
Freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be
(James Baldwin)