RE: Better reasons to quit Christianity
August 19, 2012 at 2:42 pm
(This post was last modified: August 19, 2012 at 2:48 pm by Skepsis.)
:BOUNCE-BALL:
Can I expect an answer to my original question anytime soon, on free will of individuals?
Stop the presses!
I didn't notice that you did answer this. Sorry I missed it.
Just knowing beforehand doesn't cause this to happen, you're exactly right. But If you created a world knowing beforehand that Bill Gates would make billions and setting it in motion to achieve that outcome, (rather than another outcome that could arise from the infinite other universes God was capable of creating) then I would say that Bill Gate's free will is nothing but an illusion in that world. He might think he is choosing to do things, but the choices were already made when God created the universe in which he now exists.
Can I expect an answer to my original question anytime soon, on free will of individuals?
Stop the presses!
spockrates Wrote:Thank you. I'd say that I don't see how knowing what someone will do is the same as making someone do. For example, let's say I live in the 1980s and create a time machine. I travel to the year 2000 and learn that a guy named Bill Gates has created a corporation called Microsoft that has made hundreds of millions. I travel back to the 1980s and invest in Microsoft and make a fortune. Now, my knowing Bill Gates would create a corporation that was successful does not mean that I caused Bill Gates to do this.
I didn't notice that you did answer this. Sorry I missed it.
Just knowing beforehand doesn't cause this to happen, you're exactly right. But If you created a world knowing beforehand that Bill Gates would make billions and setting it in motion to achieve that outcome, (rather than another outcome that could arise from the infinite other universes God was capable of creating) then I would say that Bill Gate's free will is nothing but an illusion in that world. He might think he is choosing to do things, but the choices were already made when God created the universe in which he now exists.
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
