Quote:spockrates Wrote:I cannot think of any reason why you, or I are not free to choose as we decide to choose. Can you?
Telling a person 'do as I say or I will hurt you' (you will go to hell) is called 'Hobson's choice' IE no choice or'coercion'
As for the implicit claim of free will. The free/determinism dichotomy remains a major metaphysical dilemma.
The notion of an omniscient god abrogates the concept of free will.This was something of which The Calvinists with their doctrine of predestination understood but tried to weasel out of.
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Quote: Objection: If man has no free will, i.e. God elects and controls everything including man's sinful acts, how can you not conclude that God is responsible for sin and evil? That God is the author of sin and evil?
Response: Calvinists do not deny free will. We affirm that people are free to choose what they want to choose. We state that the unbelievers nature is so corrupt that he does not have the ability in his own will, to choose to follow God. This is why the Scriptures say...
“There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good. There is not even one,” (Romans 3:10-12).
"But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised," (1 Cor. 2:14).
If the Bible says the unbeliever is not "free" then he is not free. The Bible says the unbeliever is deceitful and sick (Jer. 17:9), full of evil (Mk 7:21-23), loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19), does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12), is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3), cannot understand spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). How then is the unbeliever able to choose God? He cannot.
http://www.calvinistcorner.com/answers/freewill.htm
