The Openness of the Universe for Free Will and Special Divine Action

Concerning both, human action and divine action, there is a striking tension between on the one hand what most people believe or are inclined to believe in the absence of philosophical considerations, and, on the other hand, what many philosophers, theologians, and scientists believe for philosophical reasons. On the one hand, many people believe that they are to some degree free in their actions and that there is a God who has acted in many ways in the world and sometimes also intervened in the course of things. On the other hand, many philosophers, theologians, and scientists believe not only that there are no free actions of a certain kind and no divine interventions, but that these are impossible. This project seeks to provide information about these matters from philosophy, theology, and science, and to foster and inspire the debate about the possibility and nature of free will and of various kinds of divine action in philosophy and theology in the German-speaking world. It will offer, in German, disputation training sessions for students of philosophy and of theology, conferences for philosophers, theologians, and scientists, research opportunities for doctoral students, new research, writings for a lay audience, translations, and more. The aim of the project is to change minds by drawing attention to and challenging uncritical or uninformed presuppositions and by making aware of the whole range of possible human and divine actions in order to encourage and enable people to investigate the evidence about which kinds of human and divine actions exist.