How Can We Have Moral Direction If God Controls Everything?

[Rhondazvous]

Then you don't believe two things that the Bible consistently hammers home:  that God created the universe, and that God knows everything that is going to happen.

If God created the universe, he created everything in it.  Choices, but any coherent definition, are 'things'.  If I choose to murder someone, God created that choice, so there is no way that I can be held responsible.  If I choose not to repent this murder, that's God's responsibility, not mine.

It gets worse with the second point.  If God knows I am going to commit a murder and show no repentance or remorse for that sin, then God created me with the foreknowledge that I am going to be eternally damned. That's simply monstrous.

The only way for freewill and God to exist is if God both didn't create everything and doesn't know everything. Such a being clearly doesn't match up with what is in the Bible.

Boru

You are trying to reason to both these conclusions.  The Bible doesn’t say tat we don’t have free will; but that we are responsible for our choices. I think that this is bad reasoning. 

I knew you where going to say this. Well at least fairly certain.   Does that mean that you didn’t have a choice. How does the knowledge of another effect if you choose. And if you did have a choice to not say this, then how you where created, has no consequence on you having a choice. 

However, consciousness is a difficulty if we are just matter in motion, and our actions are just the inevitable result of electro-chemical reactions. You can’t make logical choices, you can’t make moral choices, or really any choice at all. You can’t  even determine the truth of your claims; it’s out of your control. There’s isnt really a you a true all, it’s Justin an illusion, created by physical reactions. 

If you couldn’t do other than what God knows, then perhaps it goes against libertarian free will. But I’m more of a compatabilist, and only think that you made the choice is necessary.

When you add omnipotence, foreknowledge does preclude free will. If god set everything up, he is fully responsible for creating the emotions that compel men to do what we do.

Sure there are some wonderful people who through sheer will power have overcome tremendous addiction, but it' s still god's responsibility for allowing people to become addicted whom he foreknew were not created with the strength to overcome their addictions, and then punish them.

You simply cannot have a god that is all powerful and all knowing and not responsible for anything. Or you can, but don't try to convince me that such a god exist outside of your own mind.