Posted on 04/19/2022 7:24:09 AM PDT by artichokegrower
A 15-year-old female student who was stabbed to death by a male intruder at a high school in California has been pictured.
Alicia Reynaga was allegedly attacked by 52-year-old Anthony Gray at Stagg High School in Stockton yesterday.
She was knifed multiple times before being rushed to hospital where she later passed away.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Are you really sure there is such a thing as free will?
After all we had no control over what we were born with, our physical make up, our brains/mind, the environment we were born into, etc. Aren’t all our decisions and actions a direct function of what we were born with (and which we had no control over) and use that to react to or shape the outside environment?
Seems like we have about as much free will as anything we as humans create, like cars, computers, houses...
I think we’re more like a complex set of a bunch of sensors with setpoints (like thermostats) which when reached cause certain processes in our brain to activate. And the action we take are those that we THINK will lead us to a happier state - the pursuit of happiness.
BTW, I’m sorry to hear about your fading eyesight - must be discouraging. As for typos, I haven’t seen any. :)
Not interested in the back and forth, quite honestly. Nothing against you as a person, it’s just plain to see you’re not really interested. I’d type a few things and you’ll say God is cruel, etc., etc., and we both know how it would go.
Wish you the best,
SC
“Wish you the best,”
Same here... But, before you fall asleep tonight, ponder some of the questions I raised.
Did that along time ago, FRiend. Wasn’t raised religious.
Then, one night I prayed and a miracle happened inside me. Next, I read the Bible and knew the Truth.
Never looked back.
All have free will to choose to believe God their creator or not. You have wso far chosen to not. The part you may be lacking on is the way we were constructed in the beginning. we had a body and a behavior mechanism called soul of mind emtoions and will, and The Creatotr added a third level of being, spirit. The design is perfect ... for allowing each individual to choose. In the great plan our progenittor, Adam chose to not let the spirit run the soul which runs the body. As descendants from Adam we have inherited that flaw of not having a spirit in use directing the soul. BUT GOD had always planned the solution to that flaw, but based the solution upon the individual choosing to accept the cure. We are not the puppets you would like us to be. And now I am gong to give you the second half of the alternate view.
God created satan and allowed him top choose to rebel, to choose his self aggrandizement. When satan chose top rebel the chess match was on. If God played the game as you are demanding He play it, then God would be always doing to counter what satan chooses. That would make which player the more dominant? A fallen angel cannot be the source for God''s actions lest God no longer be the sovereign. But the Soverign wants those He loves to have free choice, so we do, aleit we are constantly seeking to counter satan's moves.
You want God to go on the offensive, which would remove satan's free will consequences. That is a nice puppet show but not what God planned from the beginning for humankind. You might consider that satan was created before Adam, and he had a very lofty position in the pantheon of created beings.
You’re distorting the words. Nob doesn’t want or need me to defend his decisions (or any account that might have been rendered about him in the past, present, or future). I’m glad your kids are doing great. Not being sarcastic. Treasure them and love them.
Why did Nob decide that the Deluge was a good idea? He was regretful about having made man, according to the report. Dying in a flood is so awful. We have recent real-time evidence of that online thanks to faceberg. I can see why this is all right with Nob. There’s a reason.
The idea that you may have a long-term purpose - as part of Nob’s plan - is something that I know disturbs almost everyone. Some of us have grasped it. Some have yet to grasp it. Some never will.
“you are not responsible because ultimately God allowed or made you do it.”
Very good! I knew you were going to go there.
That is indeed a conundrum - if we have no control over how we’re made, that means we really can’t be held responsible for what we do. That is a very valid argument. So how do we square that with the fact that we as a society justify holding people “responsible” for their actions and meting out punishments and rewards?
Well it’s not really about responsibility but about controlling behavior. We don’t really care if you behave the way you do because God made you that way or whatever other reason.
What we care about is whether we have some control over how you behave. And we do.
People’s behavior is controlled in most cases by consequences or the threat (or promise) of consequences. When humans come together as a society there are certain behaviors that are frowned upon and some that are welcome, and societies through their collective force impose consequences that reward for what it deems to be good behavior and punish bad behavior. (BTW, that is the essence of religion. )
For most people the threat (or promise) of those consequences is enough to keep them on the straight and narrow, and thus contribute to “domestic tranquillity”.
However, there are some for whom the range of consequences we have so far come up with don’t seem to work. They don’t change their behavior in a desirable direction.
So, what we do with them? Well, we lock them up. We keep them out of circulation so the rest of us can enjoy a more peaceful coexistence. Thus the concepts of “responsibility” and “free will” don’t really enter the picture. It’s just about how people respond to particular stimuli. A bit like the way a car responds to pushing the gas vs the break pedal
What we consider “responsible” is behaving in a way that avoids negative consequences. Or, in other words, consciously behaving in such a way that promotes your long term happiness.
Does that make sense? Is that not the way humans and societies work?
You are a sneaky one! Your circular reasoning makes sense to you because that is the perspective you have chosen as your means to absolve yourself of responsibility. That is not my belief system.
We will not be discussing much longer if you try that false transposition again.
“We will not be discussing much longer if you try that false transposition again.”
Well I tried my best, but as they say you can take the horse to water...
Wish you all the best.
I bet that poor, innocent girl wished God had granted her a miracle. I wonder why he chose not to.
See the second half of the third perspective. You are showing yourself to be more nasty than I expected. You are mocking God, fool!
I’m mocking you, idiot.
Why did not YOUR all-loving God not save that innocent girl from getting brutalized and killed?
You still haven’t answered that question. (nor all the others I asked). That’s because you don’t have any. All you come up with are empty platitudes... and name calling. Very Christian of you!
“The idea that you may have a long-term purpose - as part of Nob’s plan - is something that I know disturbs almost everyone. Some of us have grasped it. “
So what is his long term plan. Please, I really want to know.
And who is “Nob”?
You sound like you’re trying to figure out the mind of God?....Further having difficulty understanding some things about life that happen aren’t going to have the answers this side of heaven.
Well it has been said God permits no evil that he will not, in the end, overrule for good. Hence, all evil will result in good before the ages run their course. And how would we see and understand the goodness of God apart from what we see as evil?
The questions can certainly go on and on.....but I know from my own life there are certain things you can only learn by what you suffer - there is no other way. And it’s up to us to ask God what he wants us to know ...and our understanding of whatever we endure.
“You sound like you’re trying to figure out the mind of God?....
...
Well it has been said God permits no evil that he will not, in the end, overrule for good.”
Sounds like YOU got him figured out.
“And how would we see and understand the goodness of God apart from what we see as evil?”
Yes, the evil that he created. Remember he’s all powerful, thus evil is part of his creation.
So if he is so full of goodness why does he cause evil to run rampant?
I mean who goes around allowing innocent kids to be tortured and murdered, when he could easily have prevented? Would you? And if you allowed that, would you consider yourself full of “goodness”?
These are really simple questions... but then again I’m pretty simple minded.
>> You sound like you’re trying to figure out the mind of God?
For the sake of simplicity, let’s cast the question in the context of atheism.
The canonical atheist proposes the absence of God through apparent contradictions espoused by the non-atheist. It doesn’t matter whether or not the non-atheist believes in God. What matters is the arbitrary precept that challenges the atheist’s sensibilities.
The atheist isn’t trying to figure out God’s mind... the atheist is trying to figure out another’s spiritual mind.
If there were no mention of God, there would be no atheists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou3-zq-qHJo
At 1:09, the great theologian Norm MacDonald (RIP) talks to Larry King about the “God Shaped hole in his heart”. Norm believes in God. (And he also uses the F word a lot.
Excerpt (paraphrased as I remembered it):
“I find it hard to have a discussion with an atheist about God. You ever notice how all they want to talk about is God? But according to them, He doesn’t exist. I suppose their minds are greater than mine, but I would have a hard time talking about something that doesn’t even exist.”
It is perhaps a bit of a comedy bit, but Norm says it in earnest - and it is true!
Appreciate the link and text.
Norm said it well.
I’ve often said....If ther’s no God in the mind of an Atheist then who are they fighting against? It shouldn’t be such an issue.
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