I'm a Christian, so don't think i'm here to bash God. But i don't understand how God can give us a free will, and still know what's going to happen in the future...He's all knowing, so he knows everything there ever will be, right? so i dont get how we have our own free will. I guess it's cuz i'm trying to figure God out, and thats nearly impossible....
2006-08-11 05:29:01 · 39 answers · asked by Ginger<3sGilligan 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
For your actual question: God gives us free will. Here's how I see it- We have choices in our lives. The good, the evil, and everywhere inbetween. God sees all these paths, and everyone elses paths along with yours. You may choose what path you will take, but he knows what will happen on each path you choose to take. Thats my view anyway...
As for figuring God out, you will never fully understand him. By his very definition, God is undefinable. As soon as you define him, you set limits on him, and you cannot set limits to God. He is the Beginning and the end. We will never fully appreciate him for who he is. Some things you have to take on faith.
Never stop asking questions.
God Bless
2006-08-11 05:35:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Understand something. Free will is a farce. A falsehood. A lie.
If you read the Bible, God decided whether you would truly be saved or not before you were even born. Nothing you can say, or do, or think in your life will ever change his decision to make you one of the lucky ones or not.
If your destiny is to spend eternity on a fluffy white cloud playing a harp for Sky-Daddy, he has made you in such a way that your "free will" does not conflict with his decision. Whatever evils you may visit on the world will be part of his plan, and does not conflict with his decision that you shall be saved.
If God has chosen you to go to Hell for eternity, he has decided that no matter how reverently you choose to spend your life, no matter how sincerely you pray, or how strong your faith is, you will ultimately make decisions that will force you into your predetermined paradigm.
Everyone has a predetermined destination for their immortal soul. God does not make someone capable of deviating from his ultimate plan. However, he does allow decisions to be made as long as they will eventually lead to the conclusion he desires for an individual.
The whole free will arguement made by Christians is a direct response to the fact that God predetermines everyones ultimate destiny. It is a con game by the church to keep people believing in an impossible God. If you people would actually read the Bible, you would find that Jehovah is the most sadistic and cruel God of any religions in the history of man. He decides your fate before you are born, then holds it against you for eternity.
If the churches didn't figure out ways to rationalize scripture to people and left them to simply read the Bible on their own, there would be a huge reduction in church members. (not to mention believers)Fewer members, less money. That's a bad thing in the God business...
-SD-
2006-08-11 06:06:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very good question. If you have friends, family, or kids, you know they can be very predictable at times, right? Now if you were to place a watermelon on the table and it was cut open and your people were there and you asked who would like some good fresh watermelon, you could be able to pretty well guess which ones would want some and who would not but they still have the free will to either accept it or not. Does the fact that you can guess which will want it and which will not take away their free will? They still have a choice. That is the same with God. He knows what we will choose most of the time as He made us. But we still have the choice to either do what He wants or what Satan wants. He has to change His plans a lot to get things to go where He wants them to but He knows the general direction things are going and when it will all end. Like He does not want any of us to reject Him and go to destruction so He will change His plan for us so we can have the chance to come back to Him from time to time as He wants us to be happy all the time but Satan is throwing things in all the time where He has to swerve around it like throwing rocks in front of a car and you have to swerve around them to miss them but you are still going the same general direction. WE have free will but sometimes we just choose things that are not good for us so God has to change His plan to save us from ourself. By the way it is not nearly impossible, it is impossible to figure out God. He is spirit and we are flesh so we will never understand Him but will have all eternity to try.
2006-08-11 05:40:55 · answer #3 · answered by ramall1to 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The free will part is kinda like a father and his child... He can give you instructions on how you should live but when it comes down to it, you have to chose which way you want to go... you can either take your fathers advice and more than likely succeed, or you can use your own free will and make it up as you go along and hope for the best...
The all knowing God part, is like this... back in the old testament there were times when God dealt directly with the people he talked to them, punished them, rewarded them, performed miracles etc.. Finally after kicking adam and eve outta the garden of eden, detroying sodem and gamorah and even flooding the whole earth... mans free will still got the best of himself and God decided that he wasnt interfering anymore... sent his son to die and gave us the choice of heaven or hell... you can actually compare it with tough love... hope this helps
2006-08-11 05:41:04 · answer #4 · answered by monie99701 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not Christian, but I believe that this is a question bigger than the boundaries of just one religion.
This is a question I have struggled with to some degree. And, maybe others can express this better than I can. In short, I do believe that we as humans have free will. There is no way for me to prove or disprove this, so I have faith in this belief.
By the same token, I have no way to prove or disprove the presence of God, but choose to believe in god as a matter of faith. I cannot assign human qualities to God, and so the aprt of me that belives in an all-knowing (yet not necessarily perfect God), reconciles that "He" can know everything without determining the course of my life.
By the way, I should ask "Him" how much time I'll waste on Y/A today --it's a gorgeous day, and I have the day off.
2006-08-11 05:36:54 · answer #5 · answered by Da Whispering Genius 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God gave us a "free will" to make decisions for a reason. Our lives are not set in stone. There are many different paths that we can take into our future. Our future is determined by the decisions that we make today. Some lead us toward god, and some lead us away. It becomes our choice which way we want to go. Some paths are more direct than others.
2006-08-11 05:44:13 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The thing about religion is that everything is based upon faith and not logic. There are things that we will always hold true ever if there isn't any evidence of it. Have you ever seen a thousand dollar bill, a giraffe, The Arc De Triomphe De L'Etoile? Probably not. But these are things that are known to exist though you may not have seen them. But if you want to put things in a logical point of view, we can trace the orgins of every being until the very first "thing" we came from. Be it an atom, mineral, animal, Adam, whatever... But where did that one original thing come from? Faith is faith and logic=science. It just depends on what you believe.
2006-08-11 05:41:16 · answer #7 · answered by §чﺀﺀчβчﻯ†a 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He just knows what's going to happen in the future. He knows what choices and decisions you're going to make. That doesn't mean He's not letting you exercise your free will, He just knows how you're going to exercise it before you do. (-:
Also, we can't really figure out everything about God. That's where faith comes in. When we leave this body behind and step into eternity, then we'll understand and know all these things that we have to take on faith right now.
2006-08-11 05:35:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
there are many who ask this very question, if we did not have free will we would all be like puppets or robots, the apostle Paul who knew Jesus in a very real way in the bible wrote this
33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[i] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"[j]
35"Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"[k]
36For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
so you see evn for him it was difficult to understand all that God is and will be
2006-08-11 05:35:55 · answer #9 · answered by papaofgirlmegan 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think he knows whats going to happen because he has this intricate map set out. We have the free will to choose different things, and according to what we choose, there will be a completely different outcome. God knows what outcome goes with each choice, therefore, although we are free to choose as we please..he still knows whats gonna happen. Thats my explanation, and what I say to myself so I dont bang my head over this vey same question :)
2006-08-11 05:35:21 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋