The Evangelical Universalist Forum

If God values free will...

I am not declaring there isn’t a God, but I am suggesting that I don’t think this God is all good, all powerful and all loving. Whatever it is, it wants to hide from us, only reveals itself to certain people (according to their claims) and acts unjustly according to human reason (which ironically, he gave us)… Or, of course, that God doesn’t exist at all. I know, that isn’t a popular position to hold here, but is not not, will you grant me, at least a possibility? If you say “Then where did we come from if there is no first cause”? I say “Who caused God?” and if he always was, then why can’t the universe always have been? I mean, both arguments fail to account for a first cause… They can both say it isn’t needed, but ultimately both boil down to the same concept.

Well sure i’ll grant the possibility there is no god but to me it’s infinitely remote. For me the only issues revolve around God’s intervention or lack of such in human life. I just think of each human having 50 trillion cells that work synergistically and i ask myself if this could have happened coincidentely? To me the universe is pretty unimportant as it’s just a materially created thing like the sun but God is eternal even though we as limited human beings do not have the capability to understand what eternal really means.
In other words material things like the universe are not static, they always change and are subject to physical laws therefore IMO it can’t be eternal. I accept certain beliefs like God being eternal because there must be a First Cause IMO and i don’t believe it can be a materially created thing.

Gabe said:

Hmmm, My son and I had a similar bible study at one point: Providence vs. Probability.

There is no way to explain to others how God works in your individual life, all of the miracles and wonders…

I think it is in the trying to translate what God does, that we get into trouble but at the same time we boldly profess the historical account of the messiah.

And that is good News!

Gabe, I agree with what you are saying. I often feel the same way, especially when people start talking about guardian angels. In the case of the person who was being raped and killed, the questions that come to mind are:

  1. Where was this person’s guardian angel?
  2. Did the angel fall asleep on the job?

That being said, I do believe there is a God, and I think that those who follow Him in spirit ARE His right hand. Matthew West has a song called “Do Something”. I think his words are true. We often ask God, “Why don’t you do something?” God’s reply is, “I did. I created you.”

Well, this thought occurred to me. Perhaps the angels are union workers. And that means they are entitled to personal time off, vacations, holidays, etc. :wink:

Another thought is we will not know all the answers…until the end of time…and God reveals it to us. In the meantime, we can read what the renown philosophers and theologians - say regarding these subjects. And pick the philosophers and theologians - that resonate with us. :smiley:

This book is from a Universalistic Calvinist determinist POV, opposed to LFW, but has some interesting things to say on the subject titled “The Problem of Evil & the Judgements of God”. Can be read for free, or purchased at a nominal cost as a book, at:

concordant.org/expositions/probl … -contents/

Somewhere in the middle - between those 2 extremes - is something called Compatibilism. Which one can find out more at iep.utm.edu/freewill/. Let me quote a bit:

I’m just pointing this out. Since there are more perspectives, then just determinism and Libertarian Free Will.

And here’s what the Calvinist site - Got Questions and Theopedia - have to say on this topic:

gotquestions.org/compatibilism.html
theopedia.com/compatibilism

http://38.media.tumblr.com/ae40e01a29ffe1d41795326847177941/tumblr_n6rmx2b5Su1qjnryvo3_500.gif

I don’t think God does limit our choices. How could we choose our parents or our place of birth at a time in which we did not yet exist? We ARE able to choose concerning food and shelter. However, food and shelter don’t magically come our way by shouting the words, “I choose food and shelter!” If we truly choose food and shelter, we will work for it. True, some people don’t have the opportunity to work for it, but many of them still choose food and shelter even if they have to beg. And some succeed in getting them on that basis.

Do you have any evidence that He does take it away when we die?

God never forces anyone in any way; He influences people. However, consignment to hell is God’s loving act in order to correct those who have resisted Him throughout their lives. He will never give up on anyone until all become righteous.

If that’s what you mean, I think you are mistaken. On what basis do you affirm that God “takes away that choice” after you die?

Intervening has no relevance to valuing free will. If you intervene with the bad choices of your children, does that mean you don’t value their free will?
I think it means you love them, and want to influence them to make good choices—choices that will help them rather than harm them.

I think I understand your reasoning, but I still don’t think it’s a violation of free will in Paul’s case. God didn’t override Paul’s free will. Rather He influenced him. Paul COULD HAVE resisted that influence if he had so chosen. But he chose to respond positively to it instead. His free will was still totally intact.

Men who torture and rape a girl have exercised their free will. God doesn’t override that free will. Many such persons have not chosen to do the loving thing. We don’t know how often God may have intervened in such cases to influence these evil doers. I have known men who have deeply repented of mistreatment of others, and have never repeated their evil acts.

Well, here’s my favorite articles today, from the Patheos evangelical site. They might be relevant here:

How Would You and Job Rate God’s Customer Service in Addressing Evil?
The Best Question to Ask a Skeptic

And I also present a helpful video:

Mindfulness Animated in 3 minutes youtube.com/watch?v=mjtfyuTTQFY

Compatibilism is determinism in a nutshell no matter how the Calvinists or those who support it spin it around so there is no in between. There is determinism/fatalism and there is libertarian free will. No in betweens.

The in-between could be called ‘humility’.

For the record, I’m not a fan of compatibilism or determinism - when it comes to theology. But I do present compatibilism as a topic. It exists, whether we like it or not. And it won’t go away - anytime soon. :laughing:

I agree Randy, it ain’t going away soon. Since it’s been a question like, forever. So, I won’t give you the answer, which was communicated to me privately by the Duke of Windsor some time ago, apparently a secret that only DaVinci knew and passed on. :laughing:

Many would agree with the gist of that. For example the following thread i’ve been reading recently, especially posts by “Jason0047”:

christianforums.com/threads … m.8024186/

I like the forum chap, with the Bugs Bunny avatar, called jimmyjimmy - Pardoned Rebel :smiley:

Can it be shown that there is ‘nothing in between’ determinism and LFW? No. A case has been made for each, and the other side has not been able to demolish it.
I realize that LFW is the lynch-pin of certain theodicies, most notably as put forth by Plantinga. And he makes a good case in his attempt to address the Problem of Evil; however his Free Will Defense is only as strong as its weak link, which is the unprovable LFW axiom.
All that being said, I lean (slightly) toward LFW, but it’s a matter of taste, not of necessity.

Actually, Dave - from the standpoint of professional philosophy at iep.utm.edu/freewill/, they have this outlined discussion:

I’ve read a lot of professional philosophy, from the pre-Socratics to the present over the past 35 years or so, still haven’t spotted that elusive proof. Of anything. :smiley:

If you make a salve of Limburger cheese…like Curly does in the Three Stooges… rub it all over the body…and walk into a sauna…I can prove that you will have the sauna - all to yourself. :laughing:

That was YOU that grossed us all out the other day? :laughing:

Apropos to the discussion of free will and other philosophical knots, here’s a note from MavPhil today:

begin quote
"Philosophers contradict one another, but that is not the worst of it. The grandest philosophical conclusion is and can only be a proposition about reality and not reality itself. But it is reality itself that we want.

Can religion help? Its motor is belief. But belief is not knowledge, either propositional or direct. And if an appeal to divine revelation is made, then the question inevitably arises: how does one know that a putative revelation is genuine?

If you certify the revelation by appeal to the authority of your church, then I will ask how you know that your church is the true church. After all, not every Christian is Protestant or majuscule-‘o’-Orthodox . Are those stray dogs who refuse Rome recalcitrant rebels who simply reject the truth when it is plainly presented to them? I think not.

The motor of philosophy is discursive reason. The motor of religion is belief and obedient acquiescence in authority. Neither Athens nor Jerusalem seems to be a wholly satisfying destination. Nor is straddling them with a leg in each a comfortable posture.

That leaves Benares.

The motor of mysticism is meditation. Its goal is direct contact with ultimate truth. Direct: not discursive or round-about. Direct: not based on testimony.

So should we pack for Benares? Not so fast. It has its drawbacks." - end quote