if we have "free will" but we get punsihed in the afterlife for sins, it's not really "free will" is it?

Question

your saying i have the choice between eternal fire or paradise. lol yea nice choice.

Answer 1

Sure you are free to choose punishement or not. Just like in the Here and now. Are you saying you are not free just because you can be punished for breaking laws now?

Answer 2

IF you run a stop light and get caught and get a fine for it, did you have free will to choose to stop or run the light? Same with the afterlife and the punishment for what you did here. God sets up some guidelines for us to live by if we want to go to Heaven to live with Him. We have the choice to either listen to Him and get into Heaven by His rules or we can choose to do things our way and not go to Heaven. So we have a choice to do things God's way or our way, free will. He tells us what the consequences are either way and we choose which way we want it. Now how is that NOT free will? We choose what we want. Sounds like free will to me.

Answer 3

Don't worry about it eric, there is no god. If I cut down a tree and it falls on my house that is a consequence of my actions, if your mom tells you as a child not to do something or else she will call the cops and have you thrown in jail where they will only give you bread and water they are probably just trying to scare you into being "good". Understand? I thought you did.

Answer 4

Of course there is free will. We are free to follow god or not to follow god. After we die god loves us so much he will honor the choice we made, and send us to a place away from him. Don't forget the demons and torture are all a medieval invention to scare people into heaven, (and into giving money to the church) I've never met anyone who was frightened into repentance. the Bible only uses vague references to destroying fires and the comparisons to the Jerusalem dump.

Answer 5

You're right, there are consequences for the actions you freely choose. It'd be just great if our actions had no consequences eh? Well God sent His only Son Jesus to bleed and die on a cross so that you can freely enter into heaven. What do you want to do, chop the heads off all your neighbors and rape their children and expect everything to be just great?

Answer 6

Let's ask the question in reverse.

If we don't have free will and then we get punished in the afterlife for sins, it wouldn't really be just, would it?

Actually, I believe you just defined "free will" in your question. We can't have consequences for our actions if we did not choose those actions.

Answer 7

Of course it is. Free will means the right to choose what we want to do. It doesn't mean that there are no consequences for the choices. They are stated clearly to us as is what is right and what is wrong. We choose what to do; we do not choose what will happen because of it.

Answer 8

The punitive afterlife myth is simply another way to "keep you in line," get you to conform through fear. That's why most religions that we know of today came into being - to control the masses.

Declare your beautiful independence!

Answer 9

We have free will to do whatever we want on Earth. Depending how you use the free will given to you determines where you will be in the after life. So it is free will. You have it right now.

Answer 10

Sure it is free will...do what you want...God never said that you wouldn't get punished for it.
Ifyou were a parent, and you told your child, "do the right thing, or the wrong thing, and you told him what the consequences were. He does the wrong thing, and you put him in time out, and he says, "what did you do that for?"