If god needs bad stuff to happen to allow free will, then he is not omnipotent.
2007-01-19 02:25:54 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Dewcoons: There are more than just three choices. How about #1 but make everyone have all the emotional stuff.
2007-01-19 03:15:27 · update #1
Hi Meat,
You sadden me, I was just getting used to your new, and might I ad preferable line of questions, then you slip back into this meaningless rambling of posing an insincere question followed but a inflammatory statement. Well, I guess it is the best that can be hoped for in your case. The other take more work and processing power I'm sure. Well it is fun anyway and for that I am thankful.
Input: God doesn't need bad stuff to happen. He is omnipotent. We on the other hand are not. We need diverse stimuli for our progression as given in previous input. Freewill, (or Free Agency, as I will refer to it in the future) is a fundamental part of all rational beings.
Stop. Resubmit prior instructions, process.
We feel for your limited capability.
We love you Steve! I mean Meat!
2007-01-19 03:56:06 · answer #1 · answered by MtnManInMT 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God has three choices:
1) Take away "free will". Turn everybody into mindless robots so that they always do the right thing, never sin, never hurt each other, and then all the "bad" would end. But so would all the good. Because there would be love, no sacrifice, no giving, no care, no sharing, and no compassion. Life would be pointless.
2) Allow "free will", but take away all the consequences for bad actions. Let anybody do anything they wanted, with nothing bad ever resulting. Only then there would be no need or motive to be kind, loving, moral, etc. And there could, of course, be no benefits to good actions - because if the results of good was different from the results of bad, then you are back to consequences for bad. So love would have no meaning or purpose. Neither would life.
3) Or, you allow people to be able to make their own choices and live with the results. Because only then can love, caring, compassion, sacrifice, and morally right choices have a meaning and purpose. Only then can love exist.
Within "free will", love would have no meaning, nor would life. God is powerful enough to do any of the three. But he is also smart enough to which is the better choice - free will.
2007-01-19 10:37:13 · answer #2 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a bunch of garbage.
God created us with free will, so that we can make choices concerning following Him.
However if we have free will to choose Him, we have free will to not choose Him.
Many on this group have exercised that free will in their lives.
When we are given free will and we have the knowledge of good and evil, which is not doubted, we have free will to harm other people.
That harm can be done in many ways.
It can be done by physically abusing someone, including death.
It can be done be being mean and cruel mentally, causing harm to the person being treated cruelly.
That does not mean that God allowed free will as a challenge for him, i.e. something to overcome.
To assume that God is not all powerful due to the fact that He chooses to allow us choices, is a false assumption.
As I have said before, God has a plan that will unfold as He plans it to unfold.
Our free will cannot deter God's overall plan.
It will happen, and it will happen on His schedule.
grace2u
2007-01-19 10:46:13 · answer #3 · answered by Theophilus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The world was created with both chaos and order. Therefore, bad stuff is going to happen because chaos is woven into the fabric of the cosmos.
Free will comes into play when we make decisions to corral the chaos or embrace the good. We then experience the consequences of our choices. This world is a classrom created by God to form us into better moral beings.
I believe God chooses to limit himself in order for us to have free will. He is omnipotent. However, in certain ways he chooses to limit his power. Because ultimately God good "make" people follow him, yet this would not be love.
2007-01-19 10:33:38 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
With free will we do not have the right to choose evil but we often do. Free will is not the ability to do whatever we want to do that would be licence. Freedom is the ability to do what we ought to do and that is set up by Gods wisdom. Step outside of that wisdom and we will suffer the consequences. Just look at the state of the world.
2007-01-19 10:33:58 · answer #5 · answered by Gods child 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Allowing things to happen does not impede omnipotence.
We are allowed to make our own mistakes and reap the fruits of those mistakes (suffering) because this is needed for us to grow. There is the hope that one day we will grow up and take responsibility for ourselves.
When you raise children...you sometimes allow them to make mistakes and allow the resulting pain because this experience will teach them and they will grow. A thousand travel books are not worth one real journey. Experience is how we learn. We need to be able to experience the bad stuff (if we do wrong), so that we can grow.
~ Eric Putkonen
2007-01-19 11:02:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is eternal having neither beginning of days or end of life, a Spirit fire or light called life. The Word begins with thought from conscious awareness I am, acquiring wisdom to reason thought to self with the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. This wisdom of thought with words is not any substance or matter but Spirit, the Holy Spirit. God is One, by Himself or alone with His Words the Holy Spirit. This timeless existence of reasoning wanted company and God’s thoughts turn to creating company or sons. Sons to behold, abide with, and communion with. God discovered love, not of the thought, but of the sons He envisioned. God felt this love, the magnificence of it and wanted His sons to love Him. God realized He could not create true love or forced it upon a being, but true love would only manifest in sons of freewill. The wisdom of God also knew it would be necessary to govern sons of freewill by laws that are fair and righteous, to hold them accountable. God was willing to risk rejection and rebellion against the law. Sons of freewill could choose not to love Him but must obey the law. The sons would need a place to abide, explore, and grow. God created the heavens and the earth, His kingdom.
ONLY SOMEONE BLIND TO TRUTH WOULD ASK SUCH A QUESTION
2007-01-19 10:29:54 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because free will is nothing to be desired, given that we are tainted by sin and cannot look to God for salvation. We are completely free to head to hell with any decisions that we like. And you are right, if we believe that we can "choose God", then by definition he becomes weak and pleading with us to choose him.
2007-01-19 13:27:52 · answer #8 · answered by ccrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question is backwards. Because freedom is so important.-- The Almighty knows it is, and you wouldn't be you without freedom. -- He is willing to pay the price that we might be free, and yet the universe not be corrupted forever by sin.
2007-01-19 10:31:24 · answer #9 · answered by hasse_john 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
See here or do an Answers search
http://www.gotquestions.org/bad-things-good-people.html
2007-01-19 10:46:21 · answer #10 · answered by NickofTyme 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋