Barry Bonds and the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

I was watching the San Francisco Giants on TV when Barry Bonds hit his historic 756th home run to surpass the record held by Henry Aaron for over 30 years. I was in Iowa when I heard about the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. Since my wife and I, our two children, our son-in-law, and two nieces live in the Twin Cities, the bridge collapse had an impact on our lives and thinking even though no one from our family was on or near the bridge when it went down.

However, as I later thought about both events, I eventually arrived at the subjects of free will, blame, and responsibility.

Blame is playing a big part in Barry Bonds's accomplishment and in the collapse of the bridge. Many people blame Bonds's alleged use of steroids as the reason he was able to amass a record 756 home runs (even more as of the day I am writing this). He was booed constantly when the Giants played on the road. With respect to the bridge collapse, inspectors are being blamed for not doing sufficient inspections, and government officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and U.S.President George W. Bush, are being blamed for the deterioration of bridges in Minnesota and across the nation.

Here's my problem: If the evolutionists are right and people were not created, but merely evolved out of some assumed primordial "soup" or mixture of chemicals (and where did they come from?), can we blame anyone or anything for the home run record, the bridge collapse, or dropping an ice cream cone on the ground, or anything else you can think of?

There are many people who do not believe in God, but do believe in evolution. If they're right, we have no free will. We simply respond to the influences on our lives-whatever those influences may be-and act. We may think we have free will, but that's just an illusion. That is the philosophical principle called determinism. In simple terms, we are not free and, by implication, we are not responsible for what we do and, therefore, cannot be blamed.

If evolution is the basis for everything and everyone, we are simply by-products of something that came before us. We are only physical/chemical beings with no spiritual element. We are no better than animals acting on instinct. There is no right or wrong; everything simply is what it is. We're part of a giant machine that puts us all into motion and determines what we do and even what we think. B. F. Skinner, in his famous book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, made the point that there is no real freedom and that human beings can be developed in certain directions to do certain things by changing the environment (media, music, etc.) in which they live. Of course, if he was being true to his convictions, he had no choice but to write that book and to make the suggestions he did-and if he had been in control of the world, he presumably would have had no choice but to make the changes he would have made.

But do we really believe that we have no free will? Do we really believe that we are not responsible for our actions? Do we believe that the person who runs a red light and causes an accident is not responsible? Or do we sue someone like him because we have no choice?

I believe that we are more than animals acting on instinct. I believe that we are responsible for our actions and can be held accountable. If Barry Bonds took steroids and it could be proved (which it hasn't been), then he should be held responsible. If inspectors and government officials made mistakes, they should be held responsible.

Here's the bottom line: We need to be very certain of what we believe about ourselves before we begin pointing fingers at other people. Do we hold ourselves accountable? Why or why not? And do we apply the same principle to those around us?

Here's the real bottom line: Did I write this article because I had to or because I chose to?