(August 15, 2012 at 1:05 pm)spockrates Wrote: The difficulty I have with the flowchart is the premise that God could have created people who were free to choose evil, yet also guarantee that they never would choose evil.
This.
Personally I don't feel it possible for the traditional monotheistic God to be capable of crating a universe with free will, due to the qualities most label them with. If you have a God who knows everything and is everywhere with at least enough power to create the universe, why is it that he is capable of not dictating the choices of every person ever to live? By creating a world with beings capable of choice he is necessarily creating a world where he predetermined the choices of everyone.
Another thought on free will is that, if there is no free will in heaven and hell, then why is it so sacred in this life? So we can choose whether or not we feel justified in our belief in a God? Seems too much like Russian Roulette. Still, this disregards the idea that God is incapable of creating a world with choice given his traditional attributes.
Some theists... well, most theists believe that freedom of choice is still intact in heaven and hell. But if heaven is perfect, then why doesn't free will screw the equation?
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true.
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
