Who ever gave me the red flag, THANKYOU, i agree and lesson learnt that when writing posts I should be sure they always come out in the tone intended.
The Rebel.
Would a loving creator give humans the gift of free will?
by Heisenberg 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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cappytan
Although evidence from God is a basis for hope...
Again, as others have asked, what evidence is it you are talking about? Please explain. I want to believe. But there just is no evidence. So if you have actual evidence, please enlighten me. It would be selfish to keep it to yourself.
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Heisenberg
For the record, I do not believe in free will.
To be honest, I hope I am wrong. I hope that God does exist. Even if it is the God of the Old Testament... at least there is a tiny amount of hope there that we are not alone and maybe there is an afterlife on earth or in heaven... or another planet. Someone to save us from ourselves. Unfortunately, it is evident that we are alone on this pale blue dot and that one day will come when we will not exist... for eternity.
Posted by FishermanDeep in my heart, I just know that he [God] is innocent..
It doesn't matter how deep it is in your heart. Your belief in something does not make it the truth. We all need to look at the facts not our own personal experiences.
Posted by James BrownIn my opinion a loving creator would and did give man free will.
And that is the whole problem with opinions. They are based on how we see the world. This depends on where we were born, how we were treated, what we were taught and everything else that happened before we had that opinion.
Do you think someone born into a Hindu family in India would have the same choices in life as someone born in Italy? Would they both be taught about the Abrahamic God? When does the person born in India get to get to exercise their free will so they can put their faith in Jesus? -
ttdtt
I have free will not to jump into pits of molten lava. It is an easy choice for me to avoid doing that.
To bad adam and eve were so weak and ill prepared that they got fooled by a sock puppet and 46 words.
p.s. not that any of that happened:)
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Heisenberg
Posted by ttdtt
I have free will not to jump into pits of molten lava. It is an easy choice for me to avoid doing that.
Does this mean that animals also have free will? I am sure that an animal will also avoid jumping into the same pit of molten lava. It is a combination of instinct and learned behavior.
The fact that you can make a choice does not mean that you have free will as defined by religious scholars. We are only free to make decisions with what is in our mind. This is a combination of genetics and environment. Everything that happened up to the point of our birth is responsible for who we are. We did not choose to learn that it is dangerous to fall into a pit of molten lava. Someone else put this into our mind and we act based on that information.
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ttdtt
Yes it's called Evolution that put it in our minds and animals minds to try and avoid death.
The ones who jumped in the lava did not survive to procreate much - thus evolution excluded them.I guess adam and eve were missing that instinctive gene.
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atomant
so did satan and his mates have a free will when they rode of on a harley with fu on their backs?
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ttdtt
Exodus 34:14-26
1. For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
2. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
3. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
4. But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck.All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
.5. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
6. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
7. Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.
8. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
9. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milkI would bet a lot of money that no more than 1 out of 200 JWs know THOSE are the 10 Commandments!
Any Takers! -
Fisherman
your fellow humans? SERIOUS QUESTION MR FISHERMAN! -Gone AWOL
Luke:16:31 -Hence, God is the source.Go to the source.
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Fisherman
It doesn't matter how deep it is in your heart. Your belief in something does not make it the truth. We all need to look at the facts not our own personal experiences.
You are not reading my post only parsing. I qualified my statement that you refer to above explaining that believing deep in my heart that God is innocent in-spite of apparent evidence is because of my faith in him based on solid evidence and not based upon what I like to believe is true. Since I do not have all of the facts to know with certainty is why my hope requires trust. That trust is a risk that requires performance by God as I explained in my post. The solid evidence that I refer to is not only my personal relationship with God which is all of the the facts that I need to trust him but also Moses, the Prophets, Jewish history, Jesus and the substance of what is recorded in Bible translations. Notwithstanding any personal experience that I refer to in my post, I have concluded that there are enough facts to consider that favor God -but I do not know with certainty- and that is why I said "..deep in my heart.." in reference to God allowing human suffering after looking at facts.