Sin and the Blame Game
June 1, 2017 at 4:24 pm
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2017 at 4:57 pm by LadyForCamus.)
Okay…so based on the answers from our theists, the consensus is that god created us with free will in light of his pre-existing knowledge that many of us would choose sin over salvation. Fair enough. Perhaps I framed a false dichotomy in my OP, but walk through my thoughts with me here:
At some point in “time”, God decided he wanted to create beings for the purpose of love, and obedience. He decided it was important that these beings choose to love and obey him of their own free will. Why? If the only meaningful objective of our mortal lives is to love and obey god; if our only purpose is to serve, then what is the significance of free will? In what way does free will add depth or meaning to our experience, or to God’s? What practical difference is there between creatures created to love and serve, and creatures that love and serve out of fear of eternal torture? If God wanted servants, why not simply create servants? Free will seems completely superfluous to me.
In any case, granting God both omnipotence and omniscience for the sake of the argument only underlines my original point. God made a conscious decision to create us one particular way out of an unlimited array of possibilities (given his omnipotence). Then, knowing exactly how we would perform under this specific design; after seeing how many of us would fall short of his hopes, he followed through with that specific choice for us anyway. He made his decision based on his foreknowledge of ours. God was in total control of our destinies from the beginning. In that sense we were never free, and I see no just reason for being punished after the fact.
I apologize ahead of time; I haven't yet read through any posts from today, so if I missed something or repeated someone, sorry!
At some point in “time”, God decided he wanted to create beings for the purpose of love, and obedience. He decided it was important that these beings choose to love and obey him of their own free will. Why? If the only meaningful objective of our mortal lives is to love and obey god; if our only purpose is to serve, then what is the significance of free will? In what way does free will add depth or meaning to our experience, or to God’s? What practical difference is there between creatures created to love and serve, and creatures that love and serve out of fear of eternal torture? If God wanted servants, why not simply create servants? Free will seems completely superfluous to me.
In any case, granting God both omnipotence and omniscience for the sake of the argument only underlines my original point. God made a conscious decision to create us one particular way out of an unlimited array of possibilities (given his omnipotence). Then, knowing exactly how we would perform under this specific design; after seeing how many of us would fall short of his hopes, he followed through with that specific choice for us anyway. He made his decision based on his foreknowledge of ours. God was in total control of our destinies from the beginning. In that sense we were never free, and I see no just reason for being punished after the fact.
I apologize ahead of time; I haven't yet read through any posts from today, so if I missed something or repeated someone, sorry!
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Wiser words were never spoken.
