(January 27, 2015 at 12:17 am)Godschild Wrote:(January 26, 2015 at 2:48 pm)IanHulett Wrote: Hey guys. I know I've chosen to post this question, but how do I know if whether or not I have been preprogrammed to post this? It's not like I can go back in time to rethink my decision and choose another option. Does free will actually exist? Are all our actions just a product of time? Is there a way to actually test if whether or not we have free will? Thanks a bunch.
This is probably a stereotypical question (maybe even viewed as dumb by some), however I want to know what your thoughts are on the subject anyway.
Since free will on this site is exclusively discussed with religion in mind I'll address it that way. Just because a moral system dictates the way one should act doesn't mean one has to responded to it. If one is commanded to be a suicide bomber, commanding one first of all says the one has a choice, the choice can be accepted or rejected. God commands through the scriptures one should not practice homosexual acts, that doesn't mean there are no homosexuals, to the contrary, a commandment wouldn't be necessary if there were none. One has the right to accept this command or reject it. The law of this country and the law in scriptures say do not murder, one has the choice to or not murder, people are not destined to be murders, if they were why would there be a command not to murder. If we knew people were predestined to murder or not there would be no need for the command. Commandments and law says free will exists.
GC
The trouble (for your position) is that free will cannot possibly exist in light of an omnimax God.
If God is omnicreative, then he created my choices and the outcomes of those choices. Which shoe I put on first, whom I marry, what job I have, whether I take my tea with sugar - all these acts are predetermined.
If God is omniscient, then God knows - and always has done - what my choices will be. The only way in which I can operate freely is to do something which God cannot possibly have foreseen.
If God is omnibenevolent, then no one could commit acts which would lead to damnation: God would have created only those choices which would lead to salvation.
If God is omnipotent, then free choices would only be those which are outside the scope of divine power.
It's just not on, GC. If you insist that you have free will, then the God of Abraham must, of necessity, be unable to create or foresee what we do. In such a case, God is not God. Since you and your ilk insist that God is as described above, free will cannot exist in the context of such a God.
Sleep well.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
