Let me get this straight?

Question

Christianity says that God created me, and he will judge whether I go to Heaven or Hell. Doesn't this violate the concept of free will? Did I have a choice to be created and ultimately judged? Did God say to me "You can choose to live and possibly burn eternally in hell, or you can choose not to exist." I think I would have gone ahead and opted out of the burning eternally in hell bit.

There are only two possibilities here.

1. God did give me a choice and I, for whatever reason, chose to roll the dice.

2. God didn't give me a choice and I was put on this Earth against my will. Thus violating the concept of free will.

That's my point. If I have to exist first in order to have free will, then that in itself violates the concept of free will. What if I didn't want to exist in the first place? Who in their right mind would want to gamble with eternal damnation.

Dhyana
I'm not arguing whether or not free will exists. I'm arguing whether or not I was denied my free will.

Thanks for the answers. Seems some of us have different views on what free will really means. All I'm saying is that I never had a chance to choose whether to be judged or not. According to the Christian belief my purpose on this Earth is to be judged, whether or not you agree with it or not.

Answer 1

You made some great points. I would like to add that it also goes against the idea of god being an all-loving god and an all-knowing god.
Nearly all religious people claim that god is all-loving; if that is true then why is there a hell?
Surely an all-loving god will forgive everyone and accept them into heaven.

I am certain that you and I will get cop-out answers by most religious people regarding god heaven and hell.

Answer 2

God gave you life and a free will. You came into the world as a baby and babies don't know how to think in order to choose anything at all, so your reasoning makes absolutely no sense at all. Now that you are older and should be able to choose, you still seem to need the care that all babies need until they grow up. I say this because you choose to argue with God over things you really don't even know about. So it is not God's choosing but your own if you end up burning in hell. Don't feel special though. It is our free will that makes it work that way, not anything you came up with at all.

Answer 3

The "free will" we have is in the here and now! From the point of "judgement Day until are our human elements will cease as we know it. Did you not want to be created? No, you have no say in judgement decisions because whether you know it or not, life is a gift from God, not something you merely play a game of craps with and decide for yourself if you should be created or not. Did God say to me (You can choose to live and possibly burn eternally in hell, or you can choose not to exist.) Yes and no! God does give you a decision to make. HE is aking all of us to believe in HIM , Love one another the way we each want to be loved, Obey HIS commands (which I'm guessing you probably had problems obeying commands from your parents to begin with. ) And for this menial task, you get an eternity of life beyond this pathetic following of dread where people show their true colors as animals can sometime behave, but an eternity of life forever and ever. Can you say eternity? Now .....can you comprehend it. Can you comprehend that God always existed? Can you say always???

Answer 4

Very interesting, I suppose that the second option seems more likely.
You can also go and say that we are here for God's (Or the Gods) amusment, such as this quote from Shakespeare:
"Just as flies are to wanton boys/We are to the gods"
(forgot the play)
And it also goes into Tess of the D'urbervilles and A Clockwork Orange, all which deal with the idea of free will.

Perhaps it's just a way for God to amuse himself, you know:
"Hm..I'll put this human being on earth, give him the power to make his own choices and see if he does get to meet me when he dies".
So it's like an experiment.

You can also look at it in a scientific manner: A fetus is basically a group of cells, all humans are.
So the fetus really can't think on his own until it's born, therefore, it has no will, because it is just a cell. Cell's act on instinct. Therefore, most of our actions are on instinct, but we do have the ability to ponder and think (thanks to evolution.)

I dunno...really interesting question, though. Gets you thinking.

Answer 5

There is a fundamental error in your question.

You did not have a "will", let alone a "free will" before you were created. Therefore God did not violate your "free will" when He created you.

What you choose to do once you reach the age of acocuntability, is up to you. This is freewill.

Answer 6

you can't have free will without existing first. Existence is required for other faculties. There is no inconsistency in God creating creatures with free will, and leaving them free to choose misery over happiness, although this would require, in justice, that God also gives the creatures enough information to choose reasonably.

Answer 7

This is the choice: He loves you. Will you love him as much as he loves you?
He then gives us a multitude of examples, allegories, and symbols of how he would like us to love him.
When he made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he also introduced the concept of marriage.
Now when you think about marriage and when it is done as God intended marriage to be done it is about a man choosing to love one woman and shun all others. Also, the woman returns the love to the man and she too shuns all others.
Thus, we can see that there are many choices that God created for you to choose from, but would you shun all others to return the love he has for you?

Answer 8

Christian Universalism does not teach the existence of an eternal hell. Jesus liberates us from death. Here are some resources for anyone interested in Christian Universalism:

Online resources:

http://www.christianuniversalist.org/

http://www.christian-universalism.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism

All of the following links are for discussion forums that are Christian Universalist in orientation:

Emergent Universalism Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emerging-universalist/

Christian Universalism Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christian-universalism/

Apokatastasis Discussion Forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apokatastasis/

The Church of Interfaith Christians Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thechu...ithchristians/

Wider Universalist Fellowship Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WiderUniversalist/

Fundie Universalist Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fundieuniversalist/

Reconciliation Fellowship Discussion Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reconciliation-fellowship/

Answer 9

Oh dear. Let me help you get it straight...

God will not judge whether you go to heaven or hell. Its your choice to be with Him (heaven) or be without Him (hell). YOUR CHOICE. So, you DO have free will.

You have your whole life...however short or long it may be...to come to your decision. But it is YOUR CHOICE.

Its for eternity so do give it a little of your attention.

Answer 10

Wait a minute. You say that you want a say in whether you are created or not? What is "you" that YHVH can ask, before He creates you. The fact is that life is a gift, and you are given free choice as to whether you accept YHVH's further gift.