DE Weekly: Free Will, Good Faith, & Bruce Almighty
Below is an archived email originally sent on November 24, 2025.
Free Will, Good Faith, & Bruce Almighty
Free Will is at the center of existential philosophy. The existentialists agreed: as humans, we possess a radical freedom which allows us the opportunity to create meaning in our lives through our own choices. This opportunity is not to be taken lightly, however; with this level of freedom comes real responsibility.
Why did Jean-Paul Sartre say we are “condemned” to be free? It is for this very reason. Being as it is that we are responsible for our choices, it implies that we are responsible also for how our choices affect other people.
There are two ways we can live: authentically, in “good faith,” or inauthentically, in “bad faith.”
I was flipping through the channels on my television last night when I came across the film Bruce Almighty, and decided to watch it. I was astounded by the level of the philosophy in the film. I found it a perfect example of the idea I just introduced.
Bruce Almighty follows the main character, Bruce, played by Jim Carrey.
Bruce works for a local news station in Buffalo, New York, and aspires to become anchor. In the beginning of the movie, he suffers some bad luck: his dog pees on the sofa, he shows up late for work, he loses his job, and he is beat up by a gang of ruffians. To make matters worse, his beloved Buffalo Sabres lose a game to the Toronto Maple Leafs, making it a bad day all around.
Bruce turns his rage and disdain at his life toward God, blaming him for his ills. The next morning, he receives a beep on his pager asking him to call an unknown number.
He follows the number to a building where he meets God. As a challenge, God tells Bruce, since he thinks he can do a better job than Him, to go ahead and give it a whirl. He imbues Bruce with all His powers, and sends him on his way.
There are only two rules: he can’t tell anyone he has God’s powers, and he can’t interfere with free will.
So, what does Bruce do? He immediately does everything in his power to help himself and only himself. He doesn’t pay any attention to others.
He exacts revenge on those who have wronged him: the people who beat him up, his colleague who stole the anchor job from him, and anyone else who inconveniences him, be it in traffic on the street or otherwise.
I’m going to skip over quite a bit of the film for lack of time, but what happens is Bruce ends up right back where he started; his life begins to unravel, he pushes away those who love him, and he feels lost, alone, and not in control.
In one of the most powerful scenes, Bruce is walking down the middle of the street in the pouring rain, lamenting his situation. He falls to his knees crying, and says to God, “You win. I’m done. Please, I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be God. I want you to decide what’s right for me. I surrender to your will.”
Bruce has a face-to-face with God where he is led to realize his mistakes and what it really means to lead a meaningful life. He comes out of this finally able to see how he has to live: responsibly, with respect for his own free will and the free will of the Other.
There is a catch when it comes to free will.
Any choice we make in search of meaning in our own lives, without an objective sense of what is good and bad, is relative. If we operate this way in relation to the will of the Other, our lives are meaningless.
During his time as God, Bruce used his powers for selfish gains, completely ignoring the will of the Other. He relished his ultimate power while simultaneously attempting to reject any sense of responsibility.
Even with this sheer, omnipotent power, Bruce could not find meaning and happiness. It was not until he realized that he needs to find happiness within the restrictions of his own free will and the free will of others that he became at peace with his human limitations.
It was his own existential realization that the feeling of fulfillment comes from accepting his responsibility while willing the good of the other which taught him that he already does lead a meaningful life.
Meaning, value, purpose, happiness––none of these are a given, but created through responsible choices in accordance with our radical, powerful freedom.
Much like Job in the Old Testament, Bruce had a run of bad luck and cried out in protest of God’s will for his life.
Through his trials, he came to accept that he cannot control everything, only his own existence. He had to find meaning in the place he is now––as a human being with flaws––so that he could be a better version of himself. Not God, but Bruce.
Back to the existential concepts I mentioned earlier: good faith and bad faith. Authentic and inauthentic living.
Good faith entails acknowledging your radical freedom in life, while accepting the limitations placed on you. Make good choices, be true to yourself, and will the good of the Other.
Bad faith entails denying the responsibility that comes with your freedom, and saying “to Hell” with everyone else.
What Bruce had to learn the hard way was that in order to live in good faith, you have to have faith faith.
Faith that he could navigate the darkness we all must confront at some point in our lives.
Because faith does entail some level of darkness. It goes beyond our bodily perception into what we cannot understand. We cannot understand God or the nature of the world through perception only, but through faith.
How do we accomplish this?
Accept the freedom you are condemned to. Use your free will wisely. Accept you cannot avoid the ups and downs of life. Accept things will happen that you cannot avoid. And, make choices that will the good of the Other. They might just will that good right back at you.
“We live from our heart . . . how we live in the world now and in the future is, almost totally a result of what we have become in the depths of our being––in our spirit, will or heart. That is where we understand our world and interpret reality. From there we make our choices, act and react, try to change the world. We live from our depths––and we understand little of what is there.” –– Dallas Willard, Revolution of the Heart
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Brandon J. Seltenrich
P.S.––
If you haven’t seen it before, give Bruce Almighty a watch. Jim Carrey has, interestingly, been in several movies I would recommend for existentialist watching, and that’s one of them. Some others are The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Yes Man.
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