Do you wish God was real?

[Catholic_Lady]

I'd say it's part of it, yes. Is there something else you had in mind?

I wanted to be sure I understood how you define it.  My own view of free will is a bit more nuanced, but it's not fair or useful to ask you to defend your beliefs using my definitions.  One more question, if I may: if, at the end of your earthly life, god grants you the gift of life in heaven, what happens to your free will?  Do you keep it?  If you do, does it work the way it did on earth, or does it change in any way?

The Catholic idea is that you don't enter heaven until you are already "perfect", for lack of a better word. We believe the vast majority of us will go to Purgatory where we will really learn to love God (love goodness and love, which is what we believe God is) with a perfect love.

Once we reach that stage, we go to Heaven. Yes, we will still have free will but at that point we will already have so much love for God and for all that is good, that we won't sin anymore. I hope that helps. Thanks for the respectful dialogue. Let me know if you have any more questions. :-)

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Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer my question. I appreciate it. :-)

My parents and little brother are flying down to visit for the next few days and they will be here this evening! I've been cleaning up and preparing the place for them, so I will be unavailable for the rest of today until next week.

Thanks again, hope everyone has a great weekend!