A Quick Thought On God Giving Us Free Will

[0UjgJBt3ONkG]

This is a quick thought I had that I figured I'd share about Christians claim that we're given free will.

Now, for the sake of this lets ignore the additional problems with free will... Such as, if God is omnipotent and knows the future and knows how our life is going to play out and has a plan for us then we don't really have free will if he created us already knowing what we're going to do etc etc.

But beyond that, my thought was...

Isn't claiming we have free will essentially the same as telling someone in a prison cell they're free to move around?

I mean yes, we can choose what we want to do with our lives etc, however all of our choices and the things we are even capable of coming up with to consider as choices all must be done within the limitations of our minds/bodies.

I imagine many of you have probably thought about this before, but I figured I'd share anyway. If anyone has any additional thoughts or opinions about this I'd love to hear.

Note: Please vote in the poll, I am trying to get a better feel for GAU and what the members like/want.  

[Dathu]

Well, free-will is just a lame excuse that christian theologists use to explain why a good god would create evil. Once you realize that, anymore attacks on the idea is just beating a dead horse, I think.

I mean, okay, I've heard the argument: God gave us free will so that we can choose to be good or evil. Making us incapable of sin is the same as lashing us in chains. God loves us so much that he will even let us fall if that is our wish.

To which I've replied "But what about people born into sin: molested, beaten, mentally abused, basically made bad from the day they were born?"

"Those poor souls suffer the sins of others, whether they be of the parents or of strangers, and though there trials will be hard, the choice still lies with them for not all those who grow up wickedness become wicked themselves."

Which always brings me to: Then what about gays. They're born that way. There is no choice.

"Each of us receive a different test. For some it is but a moment in their life, while for others it is their life itself. Those who are truly good, with the help of God, will overcome any obstacle."

As you mentioned, ignoring that this counters the idea of god's omnipotence, this also shows us that god isn't fair. Fair is everyone having an equal chance, but when you consider that people will be thrown into bad homes or born with a genetic inclination toward "sin," that god isn't being fair, it's being random, and last time I checked, random happens with or without god.

So god isn't fair, fair is justice, justice is good, god isn't good, just, or fair. Then why pray to it.

"So you can go to heaven!"

And we find ourselves back to the issue of "burden of proof." Prove there's a heaven, and I might start to give a damn.

eek Whoa, kind of when on a rant there, and I only intended to post the first paragraph.  

[=X-Sparker + AquaKiller=]

If I had true free will...


I'd be on a different planet now, probably with a species more sophisticated than humans.

The Christians always say that we're born with sins. We're born through sex, which are acts of sins. We're sinned as soon as we are out so we don't exactly have a choice between good and evil. We're evil the moment we're alive so why the hell exactly would we be good??

lol just ANOTHER Christian contradiction.  

[Dathu]

=X-Sparker + AquaKiller=

If I had true free will...


I'd be on a different planet now, probably with a species more sophisticated than humans.

Ah yes, the race of Atheist Sea Otters. They are wise indeed. *Bows.*