Why do Christians always use the "free will" argument?

Question

when asked why bad things happen in the world? do they know that this argument was made up in the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas as a justification for god?

so, god doesn't want us to be his slaves and that's why he gave us free will

but if we don't want to believe in him - we're automatically going to hell

is that free will?

hey, Sebastian, have you even read Aquinas proof of god's existence?

Answer 1

Not to mention that it is a cop-out since they also believe in hell.

It is like a battered wife being told by an abusive husband, "You have free will to leave whenever you want, but if you do I'll hunt you down and kill you".

Answer 2

The concept of "free will" was not "made up. . .by Thomas Aquinas as a justification for God." Aquinas offers five proofs for the existence of God using reason alone; the concept of free will is not one of those five ways.

So much evil in the world is caused by the vices of individuals -- greed, lust, envy, etc. Individuals who do evil choose to do evil; they could choose good, unless there is something physically, mentally, or emotionally wrong with them which would remove the freedom of their will.

Bad things that occur in nature are caused by the physical forces of the world itself.

In any event, whether or not an explanation had been offered by Aquinas or by the ancient Greeks, if the explanation is true, it is true for all time. We still study the thoughts of Aristotle and the Pythagorean theorem.

Answer 3

Animals also live and die by violence and no one talks about divine intervention into that because we know that it is the nature of animals to hunt prey or be prey. Humans by contrast have a capacity that our animal brothers do not possess. They have choice. They are not bound by nature into undeviating patterns of behavior. They can choose to rise above their animal nature or sink below it. Whether Aquinas or Alley Oop, it doesn't matter who said it. The Christians are right about humans having free will. And it does get us collectively into webs of very serious **** that have horrendous knock-on upstream downstream effects from which it is nearly impossible to extricate ourselves. We can only leave our collective hands on the stove for so long until there is collective hell to pay. Wouldn't it be more productive to discuss how to use that collective will to muster up the necessary action among the peoples of the planet to solve these problems we've created? Global problems cannot be solved by withdrawing into a smug isolated ignorance.

Answer 4

Made up by Thomas Aquinas or introduced as a line of thinking...

I believe it was Malcolm Muggeridge who used to say "The most empirically validated tenet of Christianity is the depravity of man, yet it remains the most hotly debated..."

Soli Deo Gloria

P.S. Given the state of human nature and its constant state of rebellion, spitting in the face of an infinite God, the real question is "why don't bad things happen more often". If you are going to use the "God allows bad things to happen" argument, then you open the door to "God's restraining and merciful hand" argument as well...

Answer 5

you in basic terms weakened your very own arguement through defining "loose will" through Merriam Webster. "voluntary determination or determination". yeah, you decide on for the confident determination, or the no determination, regardless of situations. no person has administration over your recommendations. "no longer desperate through previous reasons or through Divine Intervention". yeah, God did no longer sit down before time and %. who He had to pass to Hell. He did no longer come into your soul and say "i'm taking on, butt out". no, He pronounced "am i able to are available". you the two spoke back confident, no or have been hesitant to a minimum of considered one of the two. Hell is a consequence, no longer a dungeon. you finally end up there because of the fact which you probably did no longer comply with the words of the settlement. God pronounced "look, 'cuz you're no longer under my jurisdiction, i will't rigidity you to be with me continuously. I presented the way so which you will fall under my care, yet it fairly remains your determination". you do no longer sign a settlement, you don't get the advantages. it is so basic as that. and positively, perhaps it extremely is because of the fact which you probably did no longer verify your English, yet lower back, you have contradicted your self. "loose will means freedom from option to make my very own selections". it extremely is not what the definitions you gave denote. in accordance to the definition you gave vs the dictionary, loose will is freedom to no longer make selections, vs freedom to make selections. If I pronounced "no offense", i may well be writing an untrue cliché. you have the expertise of "loose will" of a 5 year old

Answer 6

If free will was made up in the 13th century, Adam and Eve were not responsible for their sin, so why did God punish them??

Answer 7

It is actually Biblical in Genesis God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree he does not prevent them, Free Will is a fact of Christianity we use it as an argument because it is part of the lexicon of our language. Think of this way we (Christians) say we are saved by the blood of Christ. You can disagree with that but you cannot take the lexicon of it from our language or argument. You may or may not believe in free will but it exist to us. This is one of the things that make dialog between believers and non-believers so difficult we each want to dismiss the others use of terms and you can't.

When arguing Socialism and Democracy we do not deny Socialist the use of their argument the same applies here.

Further I am not sure Free Will is the explanation for bad things in the world. Fee Will is more applied to the individual choices we make. I am a sinner because of my free will God keeps offering me a hand but my Free Will allows me to reject the offer

When bad things happen in the world: Earthquake, Flood et al is more a matter of "My ways are not your ways" Or the Job argument "Where you there when I calmed the flood? Can you tame the Leviathan?" What God does He Does and we are not always suppose to understand why.

Answer 8

Because that it what Christians believe God has given us. He wants us to do what is the right thing to do, but he does not want us to be His slaves just His believers. We are not puppets for God. This is another way that God insures that people will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Once Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden we lost a lot of God's given grace and turned it over to us to make the proper decision. We are responsible for our own behavior and cannot use an excuse that "X" made us do it. We have to make the final decision.

Answer 9

Free will was not invented by Aquinas. Maybe he first used the phrase or used it to explain evil, but God gave us free will. Otherwise He wouldn't be able to have a real relationship with us. God could have made us like robots, only able to obey Him, but it wouldn't mean anything until He gave us the ability to disobey Him. Then, when we do obey Him, it means we chose to, we weren't forced.

Answer 10

Because they are stuck in a dualistic view of existence.
They think of Jesus as the only son of god and attempt to follow his lead in a physical manner. In our dream of seperation there is good and bad, heaven & hell, time and space, salvation & damnation etc. Jesus was trying to get us to wake up and find that the I AM he spoke of is the realization that ALL IS GOD, and the easiest place to realize that is within.
He even had his body killed & rose again to show us that what we of thought as death is only removing a spacesuit. But we still didn't get it. Instead, we glorified & seperated him more, using our "free will" to follow him.

Answer 11

It was "made up" with the first two people on the earth. Read the story of Adam and Eve. God gave them choices from the beginning. I ASSURE you free will was not invented in the 13th century (I'm still chuckling from that suggestion).