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To: Dutchboy88
If you like philosophy (and headaches) you should try Whitehead's “Process and Reality.” He argues that God does not “need” to be eternal (as I am using the term).

The standard, and glib, answer to the objection is, “Knowing isn't causing,” and therefore God can know what man “will” do without causing it.

But this is the point where my brain starts turning to mud and dribbling out my ears. I don't see what “responsibility” can mean if there isn't freedom, but I have trouble seeing how there is freedom. How can I NOT be like the brute beasts that perish if I cannot direct my choices according to reason? (Kant has the same problem, IIRC.)

(We only say we invented the donut because otherwise somebody would say we're eating it because it's a pagan symbol, being all round and everything. We could say it's just a gentile bagel, I suppose.

(The devil invented the lawnmower. Saints use goats.)

27 posted on 06/15/2012 12:39:56 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Depone serpentem et ab venemo gradere.)
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To: Mad Dawg
"(The devil invented the lawnmower. Saints use goats.)"

Thank you. I will inform my wife of this very truth.

Although I am not qualified to examine ear dribblings, it certainly does not seem that your brain is thus affected. Quite the opposite.

I tried some of Whitehead's work and found it right up there with Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" (or down there, I cannot recall which). Anyway, after I got down off the stool and put the noose away, I committed to never open the books again. I have no idea why I included this.

True, theoretically God may know without causing. But, the Scriptures claim He is causing everything. I don't want to post the 35 passages that display this (unless you require it), but suffice to say that they persuade me that He knows BECAUSE He causes.

Now, what does that do for responsibility? Well, in what context do you arrive at your view of "justice"? Do I go to the unregenerate world and ask, "Is this fair? Give those of us who cling to Christ, your definition of justice" Their answer is, "In order to be considered guilty, I must be free to decide to sin." Really? So, the original sin which left all progeny guilty is "unjust" according to this? No wonder most unbelievers think Christianity is bogus. It does not match their paradigm. In their world, it is unjust that God allowed evil, at all. Thus, by their judgment, God is unjust. Hmmm.

But, if I ask God, "What do you consider fair? Please inform me as to what you have established." I find the answer, "You are guilty, helplessly, hopelessly...unless I intervene." Is this justice? Apparently, it is. Paul found a great deal of objection to this situation everywhere he went. "You will say to me then,'Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?" Not fair? Paul's answer. He is the Potter and we the clay. God can make anything the way He wants to...that is because He is God.

You are not among the brute beasts, NOT because you have freedom from God, but because God has said you are not like them. Is that enough?

28 posted on 06/15/2012 2:24:42 PM PDT by Dutchboy88
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