Why would "God" give man free will?

Question

If believing in God is a requisite for eternal life, why free will? I'm an intelligent, compassionate person raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. I've searched for "God" and found nothing convincing. So using my "free will" that "God" supposedly gave me, I no longer believe in religion. Why would this choice mean an eternity in hell?

Dear David,
I appreciate the sentiment, but that does not qualify as a genuine answer.

Am I not "forced" to believe in "God" by Christian standards? Non-believers burn in hell forever, if that's not forcing one's hand into belief, I don't know what is.

I've read the Old Testament. To the best of my knowledge, anything up to the reign of David has no basis in history (Read "The Bible Unearthed" by Israel Finklestein")

"As for why he gave us free will- He wants us to love him. If he did not give us free will that would be like forcing himself on us. Instead he gives us a choice. If we love him we would want to live with him. If we don't then we are free to choose to live without him or his influence. That's hell. He does not force anyone to go there, they choose it. "

Isn't "He" forcing me to love him by making me worship "Him", or instead spend a lifetime in "hell"? I've felt better as a human being since I've no longer felt the need to cater to "God". Would this make hell a more desirable destination than heaven?

Answer 1

You know, you have used some key words in your presentation that are remarlable.

" If believing in God is a requisite for eternal life, why free will? "
Because we have a choice. Adam had a choice, and he chose wrong. Now all of us have choices. You notice that life can get complex with the more choices that we have? We get to choose, but what will we choose?

" So using my "free will" that "God" supposedly gave me, I no longer believe in religion. "
GOOD. Stay out of religion! Religion is the worst example to look to for truth. It relys upon tradition to enslave people in gross undermining of what Jesus said to do.

You're big problem seems to be to believe in God's word, in that what He said is true. That I cannot help you with. All I can write is that if you truly want to find Him:
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Seek out a great preacher that knows the word of God and is gifted to teach it. The best I've ever heard is Dr.Gene Scott.
drgenescott.com if you're interested.

" Why would this choice mean an eternity in hell? "
Because God said it. God draws lines. And one of those lines is those that believe, and those that don't. Those that do are saved. Those that don't are not saved.

I guess you could say that if you don't believe, you will be deleted. Only you won't forget at the point of deletion.

Answer 2

i think the bottom line is God did not want to create robots - that would be boring. God was looking for seekers - true friends (the Master's teaching goes the next step by saying flat out it is a wedding between you and God) - and it's not so crazy that you have come to the conclusions you have about religion because that is usually the cycle of discovery.
if you've searched for God and found nothing - your teachers have failed you because you've got thousands of years of prophecies and history and philosophy if you want physical bearings of God's Will played out precisely as prophecied, especially now.
it's kind of fun to look deeper and notice that even the angels have free will - as exercised by satan and the lucifer rebellion - which gives us interesting insight into the Laws of the Universe. And also, there is a lake of fire - but no eternity in hell.
Life is a journey and you are definitely on a quest or you wouldn't have asked the question. what you seek are the spiritual rather than the physical mysteries -- and that is what God cares about. These journeys are also great if you try checking out the Sacred Books, which are chock-full of people throughout history going through the exact same thing you are and asking the same questions.
The cool thing is - you'll see if you read that God is always there -- "I will never leave you or forsake you" -- and that Yeshua Messiah, Jesus the Christ, opened up celestial teachings and God's overall plan to everyone.
Keep seeking - it's okay to question and doubt - just don't close yourself off to the genuine information. An hour a week with a few verses being read never gave you a chance to find out the other 98% of the Book. i can only say that because i was also raised and confirmed Catholic - but found the teachings sorely lacking.

Answer 3

I think that guy David G might be a bot or something, he's given the same answer in other questions too.

But coming to your question........... Did you know that you can worship God without having a religion? As long as you consider laws of love that Christ gave, you would still be worshiping God. Religion is another word for Rules, Regulations and control. I worship God every Sunday but not according to what religions would call for, but according to what God wants.

"FREE WILL" was given to Adam originally because God wanted to have a relationship with a being that could actually think for it's self and was intelligent enough to understand who he was and what his purpose was and especially a being able to response in an intelligent way.... God did not want anymore "Yes men". He had thousands upon thousands of them already called angels.

The religion part is man made. Look at the King James version, the Holy Bible.... is it the bible that you are used to reading? Many "religions" have their own bibles. They even remove books and write their own bibles. So please don't stop worshiping God because of the bad taste that "Religion" has put there in your mouth, but stop worshiping in a way that "Religion" controls you to.

I hope you worship God in your free will, in a free way.

Answer 4

Believing in God IS NOT a pre-requisite for eternal life. Free will is a basis of our evolution. God created everyone simple and ignorant. It is the path to perfection we must decide. Some people make bad decisions a lot. Others choose to make good decisions, and advance quicker.

One does not go to "Hell", but rather they experience their guilt for the poor decisions they have made in their corporeal existence on earth. Once you have expiated those poor decisions, you continue, another existence, to improve. In that existence you are faced with making decisions again.

Anguish or guilt for wrongs you have done, are temporary. Just if you hurt yourself. The pain will eventually go away, with medicine and time. The medicine in the spirit world is love and forgiveness.

Answer 5

I once searched and found nothing convincing.
Later I searched again. Then again. I eventually found convincing, when after reading the Bible, letting it sink in over years, and observing that there are in fact people who put their money where their mouth is(regarding religion), I began to have a change of mind(not heart).
If at this point you are not convinced of God's existence, you are by no means any more "damned", than the idiots exalting themselves to God's Judgment seat to condemn you.
A person has the freewill to change his mind as often as he is breathing.
If in fact you seek God with the desire to know what it is that he wants regarding his created persons, you will indeed find the truth, as that is in harmony with his will.
I can not condemn your current thinking, as I have been in that same place many times. Also, if you do come to an understanding that there is a God, be very careful, as there are so many persons in this world trying to destroy any confidence that one can gaining this understanding.

Answer 6

It doesn't. The Bible states: "There is none righteous, no, not one." and "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

God created us, and gave us life. What a gift.

Almost all people cherish life more than anything. They will do almost anything to save their own lives, and the lives of their children.

Think about it, almost every major act people do, whether good or bad, is to preserve their lives or the lives of their children or their countrymen, etc.

This tells me that we treasure the gift of life as a tremendously valuable thing, and God gave it to us. You have life right now. What an awesome gift. I know that you have never given anyone any gift that even compares in value to the life God has given you, have you?

And as your Father and Creator, he gave you a few simple rules that go along with this gift, all of which are either for your own benefit, or the benefit of his other children. Rules like, don't lie, don't steal, don't murder, etc.

And if you've obeyed every one of these rules, then I guess you would have nothing to worry about when your body stops working and your soul passes into eternity. It won’t matter what you believe, you will qualify to live on after your body dies, so you are right, you don’t have to believe in God to have eternal life, just be perfect.

On the great judgment day, God will simply ask you if you kept every rule, and lived a perfect life, because God is perfect, and no imperfect thing can be in his presence. It's like those 'clean rooms' where they assemble computer chips, they can’t let any dirt in, or it would foul everything, it would contaminate the environment.

Likewise, an imperfect soul cannot exist in God's presence. Would you let someone with a contagious and deadly disease into a room full of your children?

So, if you've NEVER lied, NEVER lusted, NEVER conspired to get something for yourself that belonged to someone else, NEVER hated anyone (the Bible states that hating is equal to murder in God's eyes), if you've lived a perfect life, then no problem.

But ...

If you have committed sin, any sin, one sin, then you are not fit to be in God's presence. You have offended God. He gave you life, and you repaid him by sinning, and contaminating yourself, permanently separating yourself from him forever. And to add insult to injury, because he loves you so much (he gave you life, remember?), he is heartbroken beyond words that you have separated yourself from him, chosen to never be able to be with him for eternity. Talk about rejection!

Well, you know the rest of the story. The Bible states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Answer 7

not to sound anti-religion ('cos i'm not religious), it's basically an ego thing. if god had everyone worship him as a matter of course, it would be kind of hollow. but if he gives us free will and we CHOOSE to worship him, it means that we've considered him to be better than any alternatives

on a side note, your situation is exactly why i don't believe - from what i have read of the bible, you could be like Ghandi your whole life - no sin or anything - but if you don't believe in god you immediately go to hell with all the murderers and rapists. that's just plain unfair

Answer 8

Yes, Yes, there is a "free" will. It was given to us, when we were created in the image of god,- since god has a free will, we also have a free will.... we have also other qualities that God has: our essence is the same as God, which is: Peace, Love, Truth, Joy, Happieness, Abundance, Gentleness and much much more...
We have all these qualities within us, BUT IT IS OUR CHOICE to reveal them or not- it is our WILL, to be gentle or not... Knowing that beeing gentle and loving will create a holy and healing atmosphear, where you can experiance God and all of your qualities (same as god). It is our free will, to choose love or something different... God won't interfere- but we best know, that "what we give will return" (other said: we are going to reap just what we sow). The earth right now is product of what we were "sowing" before, what generations were "sowing",- we still reap and sow far on....
one very good hint is, that you "develop" wisdom. better to say, that you reveal your "wisdom" to the world, because since it is nothing to develop, because it is always part of you!! you just let it shine through you. wisdom will help you to make good choices, that lead you to more knowledge and more "revealing" your Gods qualities, like Peace, Joy, Grace,....
To mention that we "forgot" about our divine qualities is important,- because we "have" them, and forgot about them, and if i forget that I am love, I will create something different than love. If i forget about the joy and happieness and bliss, that i am, I will create sadness.... Understand? We create our sad illusions by not knowing who and what we are in TRUTH. To know about our devine nature, will start to reverse that illusion, and we will create heaven on earth right now... If you believe in god or not god, i consider not as important, than what HUMAN we are- do we choose love, gentleness, forgiving, and other "high" qualities, or do we choose attack.. this seems to me much more important. And since reincarnation is TRUTH, you NEVER NEED TO WORRY about eternal hell- a frightening concept of church... NO LOVING CREATOR WOULD DO SOMETHING...
we create while we live our own heaven or hell... later.

love

Answer 9

Free Will is the key to rise or lower yourself. If you are bound in chains and taken into another's home, could you be blamed for tresspassing? Similarly if you are unable to help someone who is drowing and you are good swimmer but your are bound, imagine the frustration of not being able to help someone who needs your help.

Fee will is given so those who wish to rise on the Mountain of spirituality may do so, and those who do nothing or slide from it, may do so also. Without free will good and evil can not be separated.

The reason many Christians leave religion (especially if they are logical people) is because they have to believe in an event that took place 2000 years ago. Ironically, none of the disciples of Christ believe he was god, even though they learnt directly from Christ. If they did, they would have never abandoned him as they all did, when he was being taken to be crucified. Soldiers do not abandon their leaders, firemen risk their lives for perfect strangers and officers risk their well being in confronting criminals day in and day out. Bravery is in the very fiber of the human beings, when they believe in a cause.

One has to be greater than the very disciples of Christ to be a Christian (for believing that Jesus was god, when the disciples themselves did not). One ironically has to believe in the disciples without seeing any miracles, when they did not believe in Christ even after seeing the miracles. Even they claim that they believed (in their own words) only AFTER Christ after his crucifixion (which most if not all of them did not even witness, as they had run off).

A Christian is seldom offered a miracle to believe in the words of the disciple, so people believe because they have been believing through the ages since Constantine the Emperor of Rome converted to Christianity or "inferior" people adopt the religion of a "superior" people during certain times of history when one culture becomes more advanced than another.

In my personal belief Christ had fainted and recovered later, as most men do not die in three hours on the cross. The crucifixion was a deadly feared punishment precisely because of the nature of the death that is inflicted, which is slow and painful. People have been known to linger on for more than a month, if their relatives would provide them food and water. If not the minimum time it took was three days, although normally it took about a week for the men to die.

Look around you brother and see if there is anything .. ANYTHING AT ALL, that has happened instantatneously and without a proper guiding hand, and you will see the Work Of God all around if you have vision. If I put a stone in your back yard, and if the anencies of wind or water or earthquake do not intervene, the chances are that stone will remain in its place for a million years. How can anything come about by itself with such precision and accuracy. If the tilt of the earth is changed, some parts of the globe will be in permanent cold and others permanently hot.. if the orbit of the earth was brought too near the Sun, we will all burn to death, if too far we will freeze to death.

If you stop and think there are many reasons why you can not remain an atheist if you are a thinking person. If you are a strong willed person who does not really care to investigate before you come to conclusions, then too, it is better you stay out of being a man of faith until you change.

Heaven is winning the lottery ticket, which you bought for a dollar but you are getting millions for that. Hell is to know that you bought the ticket, you had a winning ticket and you threw it away!

THINK and ask for Guidance from the HOLY ONE, and you shall be guided, Lord willing. I am a Muslim. I had gone through the phase of doubting myself, so I do not look down upon you or point fingers at you. May you see peace in due time.

Answer 10

Did you ever notice that you Catholic mass was always sort of scripted. Try a new church. Use your God given free will to do that. I prefer Churches of Christ( not international or united). Check into the restoration movement churches.

As for why he gave us free will- He wants us to love him. If he did not give us free will that would be like forcing himself on us. Instead he gives us a choice. If we love him we would want to live with him. If we don't then we are free to choose to live without him or his influence. That's hell. He does not force anyone to go there, they choose it.