free will...?

Question

if 'god' gave us "free will" then why does he dole out punishments? like hurricanes, tsunamis, aids???

Answer 1

no god gave anyone anything

like everything else, the weather is a natural phenomenon

Answer 2

You have some options for your answer if you want to maintain free will. God could be testing us. God can do nothing or will do nothing about nature. God is doing this for His own reasons that we don't understand. He is doing this for ultimate good. Satan has power over this earth and God allows it to happen.

I think I've covered most of the possible responses, and I don't know that any of them will be a satisfying answer for you. This doesn't mean you shouldn't believe in God, but free will is missing something when it comes to the logical conclusions that we get from it.

Answer 3

Who says these things are punishments? That's a pretty small way of looking at things. For instance, much of the world as we know it wouldn't have existed if it weren't for volcanic eruptions. The Ohio River flows the way it does because of an earthquake. These so called "disasters" are the way the carefully balanced organism know as Earth deals with it's problems. God never promised anyone, believer or not, that tragedy wouldn't befall them. That doesn't mean he punishes people in this way.

Answer 4

You are trying to get others to prove to you that there is a god.

The belief in a creator god is through faith, and faith alone. Reasoning and logic have no place when it comes to a relationship with a god.
Even the bible says to trust in the lord with all your heart (spirit & emotions), and do not lean on your own understanding. {Porverbs). It is all faith. To the Atheist, his life is governed by reasoning and logic, and faith is contrary to this.

Free Will is part of the make up of the mind, it has always existed as a part of us. It was not bestowed upon us as a gift.

Answer 5

First all people always want to blame God for things in this world that happens very bad. HELLOOOO, there is a satan out there causing all this. Lets try to blame the right being that is doing all this. This is not God it is satans doing.

Answer 6

If this is true, we have to ascribe to God all the injustices, aggressions and crimes which man commits. But no believer in God would ascribe to Him our vices and sins.

The truth is that God has created in man the power of choosing, and this means that He granted him a free will. God can direct man's will and make him choose a certain course if He wants to, but nothing in our life indicates that God usually interferes in our will. Since He granted us the power of choosing, we should expect Him to leave us without intervention. This means that He expects us to use our power of choosing and make our own decisions and have our own choices.

Our knowledge of certain events does not determine those events, nor does our knowledge cause those events to happen. I know, for example, that all the workers at a particular factory eat their lunch at noon. This does not mean that my knowledge or expectation has caused them to take their lunch at that time. God, no doubt, foresees our future, but this does not necessarily mean that all our future actions are caused by His knowledge. Each and every one of our actions has its own cause, and the main factor is the particular human will which calls for such an action.

In addition to this, God knows that I will do a certain thing by my own free will. Since the knowledge of God does not fail, my action has to be a free action caused by my free will. Should my action prove to be a product of compulsion, the knowledge of God would fail. The knowledge of God never fails; therefore, I will not fail to make my own decision, by my own free will.

Answer 7

Those aren't punishments. Those things are called "nature "....