Black and white.

It is not black and white.

My Psychology teacher scoffs at the people in the world who have an external locus of control (Believing that God controls their actions). He doesn’t understand people who believe that everything they do is controlled by a God. He used an example of himself making a sandwich. He stops to think about if God controlled his sandwich making action. “No, I’m pretty sure I made that sandwich,” he mocks as the class laughs with him. He also concludes that science shows how people with an Internal Locus of Control (Idea that individuals control their actions) are more successful than people who believe that God controls every action. Makes sense, I thought, but he is wrong. It is not so black and white.

External Locus of Control is wrong.

Internal Locus of Control is wrong.

My psychology teacher… also wrong.

The key to success is a messy and ashy grey. God does not control every action that we perform. He does not decide that a duck will waddle across a road and get hit by a drunk driver. He does not decide that an earthquake will strike the San Andreas Fault and kill millions of people while terrorists infect American cities and bomb life into piles of bloody skeletons. He allows it.

Here is why that is better.

The terrorists have a choice. The drunk driver has a choice. Hitler had a choice.

They all have the commonality of choosing to pursue evil, but it was their choice.

Imagine that God controlled the drunk driver and the terrorists and Hitler.

Imagine that God said, “NO, you cannot kill people, I will not allow it."

The duck’s life? Saved.

The American lives? Saved.

The Jewish lives? Saved.

But yet, one cannot conclude that the world is at peace?

NO.

Because if God made people love him, if he made them worship him, then they would be doing so in vain.

God gives each individual freedom of choice because without it, there is no way to truly know if that love is genuine.

God does not force people to love him, but instead offers his love as a gift and hopes that all accept.

This is a concept that motivates me to not only live a life that strives for knowledge, but also a life that strives for wisdom, the ability to use knowledge for the betterment of humanity.

Tune in next week for a continuation of my story, philosophy, and opinions.