Free will????

Question

Here's a question for ya?
According to Christianity (wich I am) we are given a "free will" to choose to soome extent, if not supposedly all extent, our actions.
So then .... If ALL mankind is made imperfect (and according to the bible we are) and NO ONE is without sin (including "original sin") wuch we aren't. Where then is my free will? My will is NEVER to sin and offend my creator but the fact that we are made imperfect and (and i qoute) "ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" .... where then IS my free will? HMMMM?

Answer 1

The glory is that God wants everyone NOT to have to do his will - he wants people to CHOOSE to do his will.

We are all free to make our own choices.

What is unfortunate is when some groups try to impose their beliefs on other people.

Answer 2

This is a question for "Religion", not psychology.
The part that gives it away is "According to Christianity".
Since the logic of Christianity is nonexistent, then there is no way that you can reasonably find an answer using their terms.
The only natural right is the right to try to live. That's it. Everything else is made up by someone. As long as you remember this, you can have free will. As soon as you believe that there are some kind of Omniscience-granted attributes to life, then you have lost the data necessary to answer your question.

Answer 3

Hmmmmmmmm.....free will? Meaning it is possible to choose behaviors that have NOT been affected by past experience? Free will is a myth...a contrivance to "scare" believers into making the right choice. Like parents leaving for the evening admonishing their children to behave..."we trust you will make the 'right decision'". BTW, there is nothing more restrictive to free choice than religion period. Brainwashing begins at birth. By the time we are teenagers we are so afraid to disappoint our parents and peers, that we not only accept the teachings, we sometimes radicallize them to prove we are more blessed. Religion is the only aspect of human experience that has not changed over time. What are the odds of that? People just have to have an answer to the question "Why are we here?"

Answer 4

Very good question, straight out of the philosophy books. Not that I'm a thomist, but I'd say that the argument should be stated not that we are created imperfectly (which impugns the action of creation as either faulty or deliberately mean) but that we are created CAPABLE OF ERROR. I realize that this disagrees with some pretty core arguments of the Christian apologists in the philosophical tradition. However, I stand by it.

Try that and see where the logic takes you. Perhaps it IS possible to will oneself to be perfect, but I am not sure there's any practical consequence to it.

Answer 5

We are not "given" a free will as a blessing but as a curse
because the original couple's sin was that they chose free will by disobeying GOD when they were told not to eat from the tree of life.....so the wages they paid for free will was to sin and then die..........God said.....FOR THE DAY THAT YOU EAT FROM THE TREE OF LIFE YOU WILL SURELY DIE. So death is our inherited sin from the first human couple, that is why we are not without sin...... "ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" Hebrew translation for the word "sin"
......"missing the mark"....whether willfully or not.
Kind of a lame deal isn't it?....Oh well whaddya gonna do.

Answer 6

Actually, we are all created in the image of God, who is, indeed, perfect.

We are born without sin, innocents.

The choices we make when we take advantage of our free will is what leads us down the path of a sinner or the path of a righteous person.

We have the choice to remain "innocent" and childlike just as we have the choice to sin. Realistically, it is just much easier most of the time to sin.

Answer 7

God doesn't make anyone imperfect
he gave us lists of rules to follow
and the free will to chose if we will follow them

And although we are all with sin
we can be be forgiven upon asking God
therefore were sin free again

Answer 8

Dude, your trying too hard. Just be the best person that you can be and remember the golden rule. Everyone has their own ideas about religion, but people get too caught up in the little picture when they need to look at the big picture. Good Luck

Answer 9

You translate our great history book, to litterally. We have to think, before taking an action, and we have to only do what's morally right! We are in a sense created perfect, but that perfection is not humanyly literal. It's more metaphysical.

Answer 10

Free will in Christianity is a myth. If God tells me I have "free will", but then use that free will to sin, then he will punish me for eternity. I equate this exactly as a husband who tells his wife she has free will, but when she does something wrong, he beats her up for it. That isn't free will.