Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

To: visualops
Because free will means the ability to make choices. There is evil here because this is not Heaven, this is the Fallen world. Adam and Eve essentially did live in the place you wish the world was....

Okay, so you are saying this world is not as ideal as Heaven, and the reason our world is worse is because of the mistakes of Adam and Eve. Am I correct?

If so, then I must ask: if God is all good, and all powerful, why did he structure things so that Adam and Eve *could* make a mistake? Why didn't God make the world so that Adam and Eve could have free will, but at the same time make them unable to stain humanity with their mistakes? That could not have been very difficult for an all-powerful being.

...Maybe God wants us to learn what true Love is so we will understand what it means to give and trust without question. Maybe if we'd truly loved Him we would have had that trust to obey without question and we'd still be in Eden.

An all-powerful God could have achieved those objectives without any risk of evil at all. Again, by definition God can do anything. So why did He even give us the slightest chance to mess things up, if He could have reached his desired outcome without the possibility of error?

27 posted on 04/07/2008 6:19:57 PM PDT by timm22 (Think critically)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies ]


To: timm22
Okay, so you are saying this world is not as ideal as Heaven, and the reason our world is worse is because of the mistakes of Adam and Eve. Am I correct?

No, Eden was ideal, it was the world God created. The world fell because Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of Knowledge. They didn't so much make a "mistake", as disobey God. They didn't have faith (to believe without seeing) or love (unconditional trust). That's my take on it.

If so, then I must ask: if God is all good, and all powerful, why did he structure things so that Adam and Eve *could* make a mistake? Why didn't God make the world so that Adam and Eve could have free will, but at the same time make them unable to stain humanity with their mistakes? That could not have been very difficult for an all-powerful being.

Like I said, you can't have free will yet be unable to make mistakes. Without free will, we really wouldn't be human would we?

An all-powerful God could have achieved those objectives without any risk of evil at all. Again, by definition God can do anything. So why did He even give us the slightest chance to mess things up, if He could have reached his desired outcome without the possibility of error?

Well, first of all you are assuming you know what God's objective is. Secondly, you keep changing what we are. Maybe look at it from the other direction: what if he did as you suggest, and created perfect beings with no free will, no choices, no mistakes. What would we be?
33 posted on 04/07/2008 6:47:13 PM PDT by visualops (artlife.us nature wallpapers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson