Does anyone ever wonder about why the Christian god supposedly gave humans free will?

Question

and then punished us for using it to not follow the rules he set down? What the heck is up with that, and why do so many accept this without thinking about it? Remember folks, this is supposed to be a free and open forum. I'd be happy to see us agree or disagree without rancor.

Answer 1

The Catholics put the books of the New Testament together in a way to pull in converts of that era. They new many changes would need to be made to the Old Testament to do that, so a significant amount of insertions and editing was done. Most of what you see in the New Testament is direct copy from the Mithra Religion. The Catholics used that and then included women. By including women and basically the same beliefs, to include the bit about Jesus, they eventually out grew the Mithra believers and even took over the Mithra leadership in Rome where the Vatican now sits.

Answer 2

1) God did give free will...this is obvious...I would strike "supposedly".

2) God doesn't punish us for not following the rules. He has taken the handeriting of the ordinances which are contrary to us out of the way and nailed them to the cross. God is merciful and gives Grace to all who ask without finding fault. You have a free will choice to make whether you want it or not. Do you desire mercy?

3) My observation is that most Christians spend a lot of time thinking about things that are really a waste of time. Grace is very simple. Most people spend years thinking deeply about the things of God before letting go of their own works and letting God work.

4) Unfortunately, the web is devoid of emotion and inflection. Sometimes people do not feel the love in my responses because I write straight to the issue. This is especially true if I make light of a subject by speaking an absurdity to accentuate the truth. I am generally very happy, smiling and sometimes laughing, and mean no harm when I do so. You would be hard pressed to hate me if I were in the room speaking to you and injecting my love and care into the words. Anyway, people need to grow up and not be so sensitive.

Answer 3

Hah! I like Catholic Crusader's answer. "Do you punish your kids when they break the rules?" Well, of course you do, but you didn't give them the free will to do anything they want beforehand, now did you?

Free will, if you think about it, is really just a license to do whatever you choose. So, God said "here you go, choose for yourself," AND, "follow these rules?" That seems a bit contradictory. Why bother with the one if you want the other?

Answer 4

in order to express his defining qualities of love, mercy, patience, etc., God introduced complications to his creation, much like an author might introduce a villain into a story. we are the villain. in God's mercy he has provided a way that even the villain might have a happy ending.

without the concept of sin and disobedience, how could we ever understand love and forgiveness? just as humans create to express who we are, God has created this world to express his nature. he loves his creation, just as an author loves his characters, but the villain still has to lose in the end, or the good guys(who still have flaws) would forever live in fear.

this is of course as close of an analogy as i can come up with to explain the motivations of a God that is really quite beyond comprehension in many ways. if you feel that you are being treated unfairly, all you have to do is ask for forgiveness and follow God in obedience and you become the flawed protagonist instead of the evil villain.

Answer 5

If God made us without free will, we could not spontaneously love Him. He would (I assume) prefer us to choose to love and follow Him instead of that being something that is just built into us.

I would ask - are you a parent? Do you set rules for your child/children to follow? Do you punish them when they disobey? Do you still love them when they disobey? Do they have the "right" to love/hate/obey/disobey you? Can they freely make those choices? Its something like that with God.

I speak only from the Christian perspective. Am not sure how the other religions handle this.

Answer 6

Yes. I've wondered who came up with that idea. Of course, the churches did in order to get people to fill the pews. It's ridiculous really, to think that one will be punished for not making the right "choice." Do you set your child on fire if they don't become a doctor like you wanted them to?

Answer 7

Since the christian god and the muslim god are the same guy, I suppose it was so we could choose to be christian or muslim.

Or maybe it is just a way humans use to absolve god from culpability for the consequences of the sin and perfidy he/she must have created by intelligent design.

Answer 8

were laws set up to bring peace and justice. Or can I live a lawless life doing whatever pleases me and walk over anyone that gets in the way. Ten commands wasn't enough the holy spirit had to come into the world to convict us of sin/ lawlessness. Get a clue of what your talking about.

Answer 9

it depends on how you define free will. Jesus says we are in bondage to sin. we sin because that is what are desire is, that that we are in slavery to our own wills which is not to desire God but desire wickedness. We can only do what are heart desires which is to disobey... that doesnt sound free to me. Man willingly chooses to disobey God.
Only someone who has been born again and given a new nature can someone have liberty and serve Christ with a new spiritual nature that desires to please God by doing righteous holy things.

Answer 10

G-D cannot be around sin, he is pure love and goodness, evil will end up destroyed. That is why he gave us a free way out of this life to another life free of sin and evil. You have a free will to choose it or not. I have no conflict with this. He wants people with good hearts to love and worship him freely he dose not want to be worshiped out of fear, but with love, and by people that want to be with him and his rules, if you want no part of G-D that is up to you.