Out of curiosity, I would like to get your input:
There are several scenarios that I would like you to choose from, and I would like you to choose the one that would genuinely create the most happiness for you.
1. Assume that there is no God or creator of the universe. We just happen to exist out of chance, given that the universe does exist, but we somehow managed to evolve randomly out of some primordial slime. And so here we are today with the intellectual capacity to debate the origin of our existence. It doesn't really matter though, because we are just a bunch of animals that happened to evolve from a universe that we don't know why exists in the first place.
2. Assume we were created by God, a spirit that is greater than ourselves and designed us, but we have no free will. We are essentially robots, and the only thing we can do is what we were programmed to do. If we feel good, it's because we were programmed to feel this way. If we decide to do anything, it's because we were programmed to do it.
3. Assume that we were created by God, a spirit who is greater than us, but he decided to create us in his own image by giving us free will to choose what we do, just like him. Now, being greater, more intelligent and wise than us, he knew that if we chose to do certain things, we would create different consequences for ourselves and others that those actions affected. But he allowed us to do these things if we so chose. Of course, what loving person would not warn you of the consequences of your actions if they knew beforehand what would happen if you chose to do something harmful to yourself or others? But what if this creator allowed us to go ahead and do whatever we wanted, indulging in our selfish lusts and pleasures, making ourselves feel good temporarily through our own wants and decisions, only to find out by the end of our life that what we chose for ourselves was clearly not the best decisions we could have made? In fact, this creator of ours loved us so much that he not only allowed us to do whatever we wanted during our lifetime, but in order to make up for all the mistakes we made, he allowed his first-born creation that he had grown to love for longer than anyone else or anything in existence, for that matter, to suffer and die in exchange for our lives. The only one besides himself that was able to have free will and at the same time be subjected to the temptations to use that free will, especially in a fleshly body, for their own self indulgence was his very first creation who had witnessed the rest of creation in its making and was able to see how great of a gift life and free will was. So because of all of this, you are able to live a human life and experience first-hand the selfish desires and pleasures that free will can bring you. You can use your free will to do whatever you want, whether it be pleasing only yourself or helping the rest of your family, who are really the entire human race, to use their free will for good and actually be truly happy for eternity.
Which one of these scenarios would make you the happiest? Of course, these are only hypothetical scenarios in which I am curious to know your choice. I am not saying that all explanations of free will are limited to these three scenarios.
