Well--(non-joking answer) since I have the gift of reason, I always act for an end, I always desire to be happy, and my free will only operates with such freedom because I don't always know the best ways to make myself happy...in other words, because I can convince myself that several different things could make me happy, I feel free to choose any of them.
If God is who they (the Christians) say He is--He's pure happiness--He's the fulfillment of all desire and all being. If I really knew that total reality, there would be no excuse to pick anything other than Him--I would be compelled by my own inner freedom (because my freedom exists to allow me to choose what will make me happy) to worship Him. That is--IF God appeared to me. I haven't seen any visions lately. Of course, Christians say that that non-appearance of a big vision to me is because He respects my freedom, and wants me to battle heroically to choose Him, and so only gives us glimpses--bite-sized increments of knowledge of God. If that's true, I think the fact that I'm on this chat-room shows that there's a down-side to that kind of freedom. The ignorance such a God leaves me--the fact that it does not seem absolutely certain to me that there is a knowing, loving God, who is the fulfillment of all my desire--leaves me just enough room to reject Him, too. So I guess the real question for me isn't: "what if God appeared in front of you right now"--because, inasmuch as He ever does to most people (if He existed at all) He is right now to me, in the little moments of life. The question to me is: "what are you going to do with the little evidences that you could interpret for or against God right now?"
That's the darndest thing about reality--as long as you're open to it, it keeps on asking the same darned questions over and over again until you're dead. I feel like I can reject God 80 bzillion times and the 80 bzillionth & 1st, the question is still going to be there, until I give it a shot.
If God is who they (the Christians) say He is--He's pure happiness--He's the fulfillment of all desire and all being. If I really knew that total reality, there would be no excuse to pick anything other than Him--I would be compelled by my own inner freedom (because my freedom exists to allow me to choose what will make me happy) to worship Him. That is--IF God appeared to me. I haven't seen any visions lately. Of course, Christians say that that non-appearance of a big vision to me is because He respects my freedom, and wants me to battle heroically to choose Him, and so only gives us glimpses--bite-sized increments of knowledge of God. If that's true, I think the fact that I'm on this chat-room shows that there's a down-side to that kind of freedom. The ignorance such a God leaves me--the fact that it does not seem absolutely certain to me that there is a knowing, loving God, who is the fulfillment of all my desire--leaves me just enough room to reject Him, too. So I guess the real question for me isn't: "what if God appeared in front of you right now"--because, inasmuch as He ever does to most people (if He existed at all) He is right now to me, in the little moments of life. The question to me is: "what are you going to do with the little evidences that you could interpret for or against God right now?"
That's the darndest thing about reality--as long as you're open to it, it keeps on asking the same darned questions over and over again until you're dead. I feel like I can reject God 80 bzillion times and the 80 bzillionth & 1st, the question is still going to be there, until I give it a shot.
