Theists: How can predetermined fate and free will coexist?

[robvalue]

Sure, you are just a self-aware cause and effect machine.

Why do you say that there is a self to be self-aware?

If you program a computer to run seemingly self-aware words through its processor, that doesn't make it self-aware.

Have no rights? What does that mean, and how does it follow?

The overall argument is that, if we don't have free will, then it is unjust of god to judge us. But, we don't give that right to anything and everything. What are the determining factors that give something the right to fair judgment? I can run words through my laptop's processor then smash it with a hammer. I can't smash a person with a hammer. What's the difference between the two?

I'm saying I appear to have a self. In fact, it's the only thing I'm sure of, that "I" am experiencing something. I'm not sure what "I" am, or whether anything I'm experiencing is real.

I pragmatically assume that others who are similar to me also have genuine experiences, rather than just being "philosophical zombies". Especially because evidence suggests that they probably do. I can never be sure of this however. Do you have experiences? We're dealing with actual reality here, not a hypothetical. Also, computers could be self-aware for all I know.

You're asking what the difference is between smashing a computer and a person with a hammer? Well, a person appears to have feelings and will suffer, and most of us put a much higher value on human life than other things. That's the gist of it. There's nothing physically stopping you from doing it anyway though. Whether your actions are "just" is simply a matter of opinion. If we have no genuine choices to make, then I personally find God judging us to be insane rather than just unfair. It would be like me casting a spell on my toy so that it "feels", moving it around how I wish, then getting angry with what I've done with it and putting it in a furnace. Or, like you say, getting angry at your computer that you just programmed.

Rights are simply what we allow others to do, nothing more. We don't give people "the right" to smash each other with hammers, in that we will actively stop them from doing it and punish people who do, in civilized countries at least.

We have no rights as far as God is concerned, since we have no say in it. He does whatever he wants and no one can stop him. We can simply have opinions about it.

Why exactly don't you smash people with hammers, by the way? I'd be interested to know.