by rvalich 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
This free will thing has really got me thinking over the past few months.
Why should the ability to carry out ones free will impact the free will of somebody else. e.g. My free will (choice) might be train hard and become a top athelite. However, somebody might use their free will to knee cap me with an AK47 assult riffle and disable me. Now how do I exercise my free will?
Now how do I exercise my free will?
Sucks, doesn't it?
God could have created robots that do nothing more than forever say, "I love you, I love you, I love you." But such creatures would be incapable of a real love relationship.... In which case I don't think your initial question could even be conceived in your mind;this to me
would have be the greatest evil ever imposed on the human race !
@font-face { font-family: "Times"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }
'Free will' could of have restrictions placed on it. e.g. Your 'free will' cannot be used to deliberately harm others. After all we all have physical limitations (restrictions), e.g. can't fly unaided; can't survive under water unaided; can't predict next week's winning lottery numbers, etc. So why not 'free will' restrictions?
Will perfect man still have 'free will' in paradise? If so, there is potential for some rouge to start causing harm to others!
BTW is this 'free will' thing explicitly taught in the bible?
I don't think anyone created evil. Sin is evil, but sin is not a "real" thing. It is just the degradation of "good". The best way I've heard it explained was by Dr. Randy Rhodes. He describes it like rust. Rust is a process of degradation. The capacity for evil has always been available because of free will. But that is not to say that evil was "created". Satan brought sin into the world and then death through sin. (Romans 5)
I love these subjects, for they prove why the God of the three main monotheistic religions simply is as real as a very short man taking a ring to the depths of a mountain, only to have another short man bite his finger off.
Before God created the beings that were acclaimed to him, evil did not exist. Ergo, God brought evil into the known universe. We could state otherwise, but doing so would only increase a case in which another being, possessing the same power as this God, brought it into the known universe, or that it simply evolved, which would make this God incompetent or benevolent. Take your pick.
Unfortunately, the nomadic shepherds that were telling these tales didn't think it all through. I don't blame them, for many nomads were telling stories and those stories were being catalogued throughout the ages (Horus, Mythra, the flood, pillar of salt, etc). Hence why I state that the Bible is the original form of Open Source. Unfortunately for us, we are not allowed to amend, change or update it any longer. At this point, I'd like to end by using the proverbial 'the ship has sailed', and that the Bible is 'a closed book'.
I like to the use the CityDesk software analogy. Those that used it in its pomp, would tell you that it was the greatest kept secret when creating websites. However, all good things come to an end and sure enough, CityDesk met its end in 2006. Since then, no updates, service packs nor support have been forthcoming, but still, many business continue to use it in the fear of losing their web rankings, for they are under the false impression that if they are to move their website to another, newer CMS (Content Management System), Google will drop them like an apostate at an elders meeting.
Many bosses and webmasters burden themselves with it, struggling to bend their will to this software dinosaur. Some aspects are simply left behind, for we can live without that as times have changed (stoning people for eating on a Saturday night, etc.), but the core concept of CityDesk remains. Sound familiar?
God = Evil - Love = No God
Simples....
PS. Hands up if you understood why I used the first proverbial saying?
God is infinite and finite and good and evil as God is everything?
To The Finger.
You sound as though you have confused yourself with that post. If not, hold fast to the fact that you have at least confused me.
The bible shows... <-- this is where you lost me.
God is very busy in punishing the wicked. <-- where is the evidence for this?
This book really does a fine job in explaining this issue. It can be hard to make sense of the "evil" issue. But the Bible is actually very clear about it.
I'm posting an audible audio file that contains the question, "If God is love, why is there evil in the world." Hope this will be helpful to those that want a biblical answer.
It's openable only in itunes since it is a .aa file.
