This might not be a totally satisfactory answer, but it's what God caused me to say. :o)
And it reminds me of an argument I had with a behaviorist, who said the only explanations of our thoughts, decisions, and actions are factors over which we have no control: genetics, intrauterine environment, early nurture/training and operant conditioning, social patterning, environment, hardwired material determinism, brain chemistry.
Asked him if there were anything he could do if I were pre-programmed by nature/nurture to shoot him dead. As I went rummaging around in my purse for (by implication) a firearm, he did take a step or two backwards.
Tagline.
LOL...
Your confrontation with the B.F. Skinner guy was hilarious. Sweat instantly forming on his little bald head.
However, he as a “biological determinist” is in another world altogether from theists. He does not recognize God’s intervention in His world, really at all. The control he speaks of is mechanical and “hardwired” by impersonal forces of what they call “nature”. All of this is patently debunked by Scripture as the product of blindness (induced by God).
What I am referring to is the thinking, loving, planning, managing, control of divine determinism. And, the Scriptures describe this as something you cannot “feel” (just as Pharaoh had no idea that his heart was being hardened by God), something that operates on you and in you in ways that are genius.
It is not, repeat not, puppetry, since puppets cannot feel, think, or realize anything is happening to them. But, humanity is being managed, moved, controlled by the most impressive Mind of the Universe, causing one to cling to Him and another to reject Him (Rom. 9). That we cannot “feel” it does not make it unreal. We can often see the results of His work on our lives, as well God’s work on others.
With all due respect, this is not a “paradox”. It is something described in the Scripture which admittedly is difficult to accept (unless He permits). But, the substance of it is plain...God is controlling everything. If you wish to read some additional references from the Scriptures which teach this, let me know.