You can opt to allow this child to experience pain and suffering throughout his entire earthly life, but he has free will, so he doesn't have to love you if he doesn't want to, and if for some reason he chooses not to, he will go to Hell for all eternity.
OR,
You can opt for this child to automatically love you when it is born, with no option for not loving you, but the child will never have to experience pain or suffering and the child gets to live eternally in a happy place.
Don't start defending God. Just answer the question in a literal sense.
Thanks!
2007-09-13 11:12:35 · 18 answers · asked by Linz ♥ VT 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
What really makes me sad is that I already know most of you Christians are going to choose the first option, because you know as well as I do that this is a metaphor for God's plan. However, had this NOT been a metaphor for God, I feel extremely certain that any humane person would choose the second option.
2007-09-13 11:22:50 · update #1
Zero Cool, you KNOW I'm with you!
2007-09-13 11:24:42 · update #2
My literal answer is that we should LITERALLY add any response which references being a "robot" or "puppet" to our drinking game.
Who's with me?
2007-09-13 11:22:31 · answer #1 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
The difficult part for me Linz is I've experienced a great deal of pain and suffering and it's shaped me into the person I am. I wouldn't go back and undo any of it--not one bit. As a parent, I would probably opt for B though...but for myself I would want A. I know that may sound inconsistent but I'm trying to answer your question literally. There are many times growing up I would have screamed "Give me option A!"
2007-09-13 18:38:29 · answer #2 · answered by Todd 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They don't don't seem to be well enough defined. The first choice has free will, but nothing on free will below. I know you want people to pick option two, but I get the feeling that the second option has the kid sitting around like a slave with a lobotomy grinning. Also, without pain and suffering, can you really appreciate the happiness or even have happiness?
2007-09-13 18:23:24 · answer #3 · answered by x2000 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A.
What is the point of living a life if all you are is a puppet? you must know the bad to know the good. You have to learn from your mistakes. Yes you will still love the child, and hope that they will come back to you, but you cannot make them do anything. I mean, that is how life is now. How many parents have seen their kids go down a dark road, without looking back? Quite a few. But there is nothing they can do about it. It is the child's choice.
EDIT: Yes Feral, I am Mormon, and yes that is what we believe.
But still, how could any humane person know what would happen, let alone, make their child to live as you describe in option 2? I mean, what are you going to do, brainwash them? That is not humane. The humane thing to do would be to let them live as they would, and try to lovingly convince them to come back. And nowhere in my answer have I mentioned anything about God, or what He goes through, or even my religious beliefs. This is coming from me. Granted, it is influenced by how I have been raised, but it still is what is right. We were born onto this earth with the ability to choose for ourselves, and no one should take that away, even if they are our loving parents.
2007-09-13 18:20:48 · answer #4 · answered by . 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I think that the only reason why christians would choose the first would be to defend their beliefs, but I seriously doubt any christian would want their kids to suffer. I mean, I have a catholic church & school literally less than a tenth of a mile from my house and the kids that go there are spoiled. They have cell phones and ipods and video games.... The ones i see don't look like they are suffering at all!
2007-09-14 10:31:26 · answer #5 · answered by DaveFrehley 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pain and suffering help to make you into a compassionate person, most of the time.
There is NO WAY anyone could make sure that no one would ever be spared pain or suffering. People hurt you. You get sick. You fall down and skin your knee. Someone rapes you or steals from you.
Someone you love dies. All these things cause pain.
Therefore both of your questions are invalid.
2007-09-13 18:57:20 · answer #6 · answered by batgirl2good 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To eliminate the choice means that it is not love but obligation. The definition of Love requires a choice. Imagine if your husband were to come to you on your anniversary and give you a dozen roses and offer to take you to dinner at a great restaurant with the following words:
"Wife, I am obligated to give you flowers on our anniversary. I am also obligated to purchase a meal for you at a nice place. I have no choice in the matter." He says this with no rhetoric but very litterally.
Doesn't that just bless your socks off. NOT!
Love means there must be a choice. If you have children they may indeed choose not to love you. I promise if you try to force them to love you they will wind up not loving you and instead run as fast as they can in the other direction.
2007-09-13 18:21:34 · answer #7 · answered by epaphras_faith 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a nice Idea Linz but even in the most perfect of situations, things happen. That is the whole idea of the human reality program though to learn and experience feelings, both good and bad.
2007-09-13 19:00:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm going to go Buddist on you for a minute and embrace truth 1: Life IS suffering. Not because we were kicked out of some fantasy Eden and we're trying to get back, but because life, in it's basic sense is about experiencing EVERYTHING and saying YES to it.
Let the thumbs down begin!
2007-09-13 20:24:53 · answer #9 · answered by ObscureB 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As any parent knows, the love of your children is entirely conditional upon one's deserving it. Just being their biological creator really isn't enough - for the next generation always knows that the one before will die and THEY will rule the world.
So the parent who wants love must give more than they receive - and give their children something to merit any love they may return to them. Anyone thinking children will love through fear should probably be chemically sterilized.
2007-09-13 18:22:07 · answer #10 · answered by Bad Liberal 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is Judd Law going to take said child to a Robot demolition derby?
2007-09-13 18:21:39 · answer #11 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋