(August 23, 2013 at 4:14 pm)Faith No More Wrote: I have often asked what the value of free will is from a theist when they use it as a defense for evil, but all I have ever gotten are appeals to emotion like "would you want to be a robot?" I for one would have no problem being a robot if it meant people wouldn't rape and kill each other.
Being instinct-driven doesn't stop other species from killing and raping, so it can't just be a matter of free will.
I do wonder, though. Would Christians say that we have free will now? Or was it only Adam and Eve? Because the explanations that I am aware of indicate that we exist in an imperfect form which cannot help but commit sin. That is why sacrifices were needed, to atone for wrongdoing, and the Bible describes only three perfect humans who ever existed (Adam, Eve, Jesus).
If we are driven to violate god's principles, how can we have free will? If we have been stricken with a condition that makes us act contrary to god's wishes, so that only god's intervention can save us from damnation, how is that the act of a caring person? Even his own intercession did not fix that particular flaw, it just provided a constant reminder that we are not really in control of our actions. Paul described this in Romans:
Quote:Romans 7:21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?Did Paul have free will, when his own body betrayed his desire to serve god fully and perfectly?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
