Atheism and the existence of peanut butter

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

it seems highly unlikely to me that the concept of overarching natural law could predate the ideas that things happen due to inscrutable intervention by some mysterious agent.

The idea that they're even different things, that there's a split between nature and diety..is a relatively recent development.  Ditto to it's inscrutability and mystery.

Yair.  Calvinism taught and still teaches some predestination. The notion that god knows who will be saved and who will de damned. Hence the still common view that god bestows largesse on the saved. I think prosperity gospel fits in there somewhere . Conversely god does not waste largess one damned, so they are the poor and wretched  of the earth*** . They get in coming and going.

I've always that the notion of predestination abrogates free will. Having said that, I lean towards determinism. I accept the idea of both genetic predeterminism as well as psychological determinism. Have quite managed to work out actual percentages. I guess it's moot in that I  feel as if I have freewill, and live as if that is the case--- and I think I've just gone and gotten myself confused again.

*** An interesting reference, still used as a university text book as far as I know.

Max Webber ; "The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism


The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (German: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician. Begun as a series of essays, the original German text was composed in 1904 and 1905, and was translated into English for the first time by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1930.[1] It is considered a founding text in economic sociology and a milestone contribution to  in general.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Wikipedia