Posted on 08/12/2010 1:19:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I doubt it, since every post of yours is just one more question and they aren’t asked in good faith. You’re not interested in a dialogue. You’re simply playing a rhetorical game and I expect that they will tire of you soon enough.
Tell us more about this God you believe in. One lone sentence is pretty thin. Your God is all-powerful, yet evil exists. Doesn’t it? So is your God the author of evil? Or does your God permit evil? And if so, why?
How is it that you know my questions aren’t asked in good faith? I ask questions because I would like others opinions. How is that not in good faith?
I believe that God, as the creator of all, is responsible for everything, including evil.
I do not know why.
Perhaps you could answer one of the questions? Do you believe that God knows what is in a persons heart when they die, even before He creates them?
“Do you believe that God knows what is in a persons heart when they die, even before He creates them?”
That question assumes that God is inside of time, which I don’t think is the case. The premise is erroneous.
“I believe that God, as the creator of all, is responsible for everything, including evil.
I do not know why.”
So since your God is responsible for evil, does that remove from people any responsibility for evil acts they do? Would this negate any philosophical basis for holding people responsible for crimes, even though we will do so on a practical basis? How much moral free will do you believe we are operating with?
Now THERE is a sentence that swallows itself from the inside out.
Just thought I'd point it out.
Regardless of whether God is in or out of time, the person is in time. So does God know what is in a persons heart, when that person dies?
No, it doesn’t remove people from their responsibility for evil acts while they are alive.
Do you plan on answering my question about how you know if my questions are in good faith or not, and why?
So, do you have an actual answer? Do you believe it or not?
I thought I had addressed that in #187.
You addressed "that" but you did not address me. If you had really been paying attention, you would have pinged me in the post.
I always liked the one, "Do you walk the bus to work or ride your lunch?"
“Regardless of whether God is in or out of time, the person is in time. So does God know what is in a persons heart, when that person dies?”
You asked a question of when God knows something, not when a man knows something. It is a meaningless question asked of a being not constrained by time and space. There is no before and after for God. God’s knowledge isn’t restricted by time. Moreover your question assumes that there is some nature of the human heart to know. Some Christian belief is that the heart is infinitely wicked, so even mere humans can predict what a person’s heart will be upon death. Ergo the necessity of substitutionary atonement in that belief system.
“No, it doesn’t remove people from their responsibility for evil acts while they are alive.”
How can people be responsible for their evil acts if your God is their author? Doesn’t responsibility require free will not to choose evil? Weren’t you arguing for the absence of moral free will when you said that God is responsible for evil? You seem to have a contradiction between an all-powerful God responsible for evil while still holding people responsible for their crimes. And how do we establish what behaviors are crimes, as opposed to social conventions? If God is responsible for evil how can it be evil?
“Do you plan on answering my question about how you know if my questions are in good faith or not, and why?”
I use the Dog Method.
Sorry. Would you like me to re-address it?
Should I take that as an inability to answer the question #204?
That's ok, the barn door is shut now.
I don't know what you would consider an answer. The question itself is worded awkwardly and raises extraneous issues as well as an unnecessary paradox.
How about this? Even I know what is in a person's heart when he dies, even before he's born. Is that a "yes"?
Of course there are assumptions, we both have made them. You assume God is not restrained by time, don’t you, that there is no before or after for Him? You assume his knowledge is not restricted by time.
If God’s knowledge is not restricted by time, why would He not know what choices a person will make, even before He creates them? Are you saying that God does not know what the future holds for each of us, and He does not know what a man is thinking?
Why wouldn’t people still be responsible here on earth, even if God is the author of their evil actions? We have laws for this, don’t we? Just because someone chooses an evil act, that doesn’t mean that God didn’t know about it before, does it? I wasn’t arguing for anything, I was asking questions.
Maybe evil doesn’t even exist to God? Perhaps, it’s just a word we use to descibe behavior.
Isn’t it a little disingenuous to make statements you can’t back up?
I understand, you’re simply inable to answer, thanks.
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