Ask a Catholic

[rexbeccarox]

Reposting; I'd really like an answer to this.

If the Catholic God is my creator, didn't he create me so I can't swivel my head around 360 degrees? How is that not imposing on my free will?

[Cyberman]

Really, you never heard of anyone pray for the safety of another?

Oh, sure. We just don't get quite that specific is all...

The reason for that is that if you pray for something specific, it never works.

[Longhorn]

'But if I'm benevolent to one person, I'm gonna have to be benevolent to them all!'?

Have to? I thought god does what he wants

And I'm asking why is free will the greater good than no suffering?

Think about it.

Would you give up your free will in exchange for no suffering?

No no no no. YOU tell ME why YOU think free will is the greater good than no suffering *ever*.

What about heaven? No sin or suffering there. So they don't have free will?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

---

Jenny-

I have already answered this question in the post to which others have objected. Would any one of us fail to stop a rape or a person from getting hit by a bus? No, of course not. We prevent evil or injury whenever we can - sometimes in heroic fashion. (As an aside, perhaps you have not considered that the existence of evil gives us a chance to choose to be heroic or self-sacrificing or to grow in our willingness to serve others.)

However, our circumstances are very different from God's because we are not omnipotent and omniscient as He is. We are not in a position to know that the woman next door is being abused every night or that the child we see at the bus stop is going to school hungry. God can and does see everything, and He is in a position to do something about it.

But how would He do so? Would God simply remove the desire to rape the old woman living alone from the mind of the man who sees her leaving her garden door open? Then where is free will? It is eliminated. Would God allow the man to have the desire but not allow him to take one step in the direction of the house thereby allowing him to freely choose to rape but not allowing him to actually commit the rape? Is this really free will? This strikes me being somewhat akin to taking a child to a candy store and telling her that she can look but not touch. How would any of us feel about living life in that type of straight-jacket? How much resentment would that engender toward God who placed us in such confinement?

Finally, suppose God chose to protect the old woman by simply locking the door for her when she forgot or by sending a snarling dog who took up a post on her steps to dissuade the man from coming closer. These come closer to the types of approach that God would take, IMO.

In my previous post, I said that once God got Himself into the business of preventing one sort of evil or injury, it would be hard to find where to draw the line beyond which He would not be obligated to act since He has the ability to prevent ALL suffering.

The real impact of this, of course, would not be on God but on us, and we might soon find ourselves quite sickened by the Turkish Delight we would gobble down so eagerly at first.

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I'm sure a god the creator of heaven and earth could figure out how to get people to not rape each other.  If god is not going to intervene, then why do we have prayer? Prayer is essentially people asking god to intervene in their lives for one reason or another.

All of humanity is the result of previous rapes at some time or another.  So if there had never been any rapes chances are we would never exist.  We are here now because our ancestors were the rapers and the raped.  If there was never another rape from this second on that would still be true for the people in the distant future.  

[Randy Carson]

Reposting; I'd really like an answer to this.

If the Catholic God is my creator, didn't he create me so I can't swivel my head around 360 degrees? How is that not imposing on my free will?

My apologies. I didn't realize that was a serious question.

Why aren't you taller? Thinner? Have a thinner waist and firmer breasts? Why is your eyesight going to fail as you get older? Why do your knees hurt when you walk upstairs?

Okay...I admit it. I have no answer to your question.

[Randy Carson]

Think about it.

Would you give up your free will in exchange for no suffering?

No no no no. YOU tell ME why YOU think free will is the greater good than no suffering *ever*.

What about heaven? No sin or suffering there. So they don't have free will?

If you had no free will, would you be a sort of robot? Wouldn't that be an even greater form of suffering?

[rexbeccarox]

Reposting; I'd really like an answer to this.

My apologies. I didn't realize that was a serious question.

Why aren't you taller? Thinner? Have a thinner waist and firmer breasts? Why is your eyesight going to fail as you get older? Why do your knees hurt when you walk upstairs?

Okay...I admit it. I have no answer to your question.

Why wouldn't it be a serious question? I didn't ask *why*. I'll try again, because it's an important question if free will is a thing:

If the creator god created me, isn't it an imposition on my free will to make it so my head doesn't swivel 360 degrees? Or, if you like this one better, isn't it an imposition on my free will that I menstruate every month, or that my knees won't bend backward? (notice there's no "why" in either of those questions)

I'll get to the point because I realize you probably don't have any apologetics at-the-ready for it: since objective free will is a fabrication, which I've now illustrated by showing that if he exists, the creator god denies us free will all the time by creating us without the ability to see behind ourselves, etc. Seems kind of stupid to grant free will to rape and murder, don't you think?

Just another reason that if your god exists, he's a tyrant and all-around horrific being.

[Mr.wizard]

Randy quote

"All of humanity is the result of previous rapes at some time or another.  So if there had never been any rapes chances are we would never exist.  We are here now because our ancestors were the rapers and the raped.  If there was never another rape from this second on that would still be true for the people in the distant future. "

[/quote]

[/quote]

So your saying rape is good? It was all part of god's plan, so you finally admit your god condones rape?

[The Valkyrie]

Randy quote

"All of humanity is the result of previous rapes at some time or another.  So if there had never been any rapes chances are we would never exist.  We are here now because our ancestors were the rapers and the raped.  If there was never another rape from this second on that would still be true for the people in the distant future. "

[/quote]

So your saying rape is good? It was all part of god's plan, so you finally admit your god condones rape?
[/quote]

Hey, according to the big book of fables, the world was populated through not one, but two acts of incest.

Compared to that, rape is just a side show.

[Longhorn]

No no no no. YOU tell ME why YOU think free will is the greater good than no suffering *ever*.

What about heaven? No sin or suffering there. So they don't have free will?

If you had no free will, would you be a sort of robot? Wouldn't that be an even greater form of suffering?

You tell me. What is it like in heaven?