RE: Does Free Will actually exist? Is there a way to tell?
January 28, 2015 at 8:02 am
(This post was last modified: January 28, 2015 at 8:10 am by Creed of Heresy.)
Long story short, GC; if god knows how our lives will go, then that means everything has been pre-determined. If god is all-powerful, then that means he has absolute power over our lives. If he has absolute power, that means everything we do is by his influence, as if he does not, then he is not all-powerful. In order to be omnipotent, he would have to have power over us. If he has power over us, then that means we have no power over ourselves. If he is all-knowing, then he knows ahead of time how we will act. If that is the case, that means he knows how his actions will affect us. If he is always present, then that means he always exerts control, because that would mean he is present in everything...including our actions. If he is present in our actions, then that means he is affecting our actions. And if he is affecting our actions, then we do not have free will. The rest of the poem's meaning is just gravy.
That enough for you?
Oh, and additionally, if he was all-knowing and yet also allowing us our free will, why did he throw such temper tantrums about the idol-worship and the thing with Sodom and Gomorrah and everything? Also, don't his actions in destroying those cities and people and sending his son to tell people about him count as being DIRECT intervention in our lives? I think the inhabitants of those two cities would certainly think so, given they were terminated by him quite violently and against their free will...
And if you believe in miracles, that means he is influencing us outside of our own free will. In short, if he affects us in any way, he is influencing us as an outside source; he is intervening and doing things that we did not choose to do.
Basically, if you believe in god via the bible, you cannot sit here with a straight face and tell me you also believe in the concept of free will. The bronze age mythmakers of yestermillenia weren't intelligent enough to grasp the concept of freedom of will, all they knew was we had the ability to make choices, and they figured since no other animals could do that, that it must be a gift from god, and left it at that without further thought, and in so doing, left a big giant gap in the chain of logic that ends up contradicting itself as the bible is wont to do.
That enough for you?
Oh, and additionally, if he was all-knowing and yet also allowing us our free will, why did he throw such temper tantrums about the idol-worship and the thing with Sodom and Gomorrah and everything? Also, don't his actions in destroying those cities and people and sending his son to tell people about him count as being DIRECT intervention in our lives? I think the inhabitants of those two cities would certainly think so, given they were terminated by him quite violently and against their free will...
And if you believe in miracles, that means he is influencing us outside of our own free will. In short, if he affects us in any way, he is influencing us as an outside source; he is intervening and doing things that we did not choose to do.
Basically, if you believe in god via the bible, you cannot sit here with a straight face and tell me you also believe in the concept of free will. The bronze age mythmakers of yestermillenia weren't intelligent enough to grasp the concept of freedom of will, all they knew was we had the ability to make choices, and they figured since no other animals could do that, that it must be a gift from god, and left it at that without further thought, and in so doing, left a big giant gap in the chain of logic that ends up contradicting itself as the bible is wont to do.
