It totally exists
Posted on 06/15/2022 8:04:50 AM PDT by Heartlander
If God does not exist, then, quite obviously, concepts such as divine destiny or divine purpose do not exist. But what about free will? If there is no God, is there truly free will?
In my book Has God Failed You? Finding Faith When You’re Not Even Sure God Is Real, I devoted one whole chapter to the question, “What if there is no God?”
Simply stated, if we are all the products of an unguided, random evolutionary process, a process dominated by the survival of the fittest, can there truly be a purpose and meaning to a life? Is our sense of consciousness and morality and destiny simply a biological illusion?
Many atheists would claim that these senses are not illusions as much as aspects of human evolution, setting us apart from the animal world. We can reflect on our actions, dream about the future, and determine to better ourselves. Sharks and squirrels, cats and coyotes, eagles and eels do not experience these feelings.
But what if all our apparent reflections are simply the result of predetermined neural patterns?
Everything within me, as a human being created in the image of God, rejects the premise and the conclusions.
In 2016, atheist philosopher Stephen Cave posted an article on RichardDawkins.net titled, “There’s No Such Thing As Free Will.”
He argued that, “The sciences have grown steadily bolder in their claim that all human behavior can be explained through the clockwork laws of cause and effect.” And so, “our ability to choose our fate is not free, but depends on our biological inheritance.”
As Cave explained,
In recent decades, research on the inner workings of the brain has helped to resolve the nature-nurture debate—and has dealt a further blow to the...
(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...
Even satan knows & believes in God....he just rejects Him.
(“Leftism, under all of its brand names, is a severe, violent & evil mental disorder.”)
Very true. Theynare proving that more and more these days
Leftards don’t believe in free will. If you commit a crime, it’s because you’re a victim of society. If you are rich and successful, it’s because you are privileged, and you didn’t build that.
When God created man he knew every choice every man would make.
We are not able to change that preordained destiny.
Paul was not allowed to have ‘free will’…. Wonder why?
In my dictionary, free will means that all human beings should have the right to refuse to be created and born.
Otherwise, every human being is just a completely helpless infant who is randomly assigned to an unknown family, to an unknown country, to an unknown historical period, and to unknown personal disabilities.
If you do not have the right to opt out, you do not have free will.
Can someone please explain exactly what they mean by “free will”? IMHO it is obvious that people have free will. All societies are built on it. Is it just a coincidence that you order a hamburger at McDonalds and then they give you one? Or they pass a law against something and people do less of it? Of course people analyse their input, weigh it against what they already know, and then make decisions based on that. Either I am missing something or this is the stupidest navel gazing exercise ever.
We have free will to do what we want to do but not what we ought to do.
We now know what the opposite of the belief in God results in, and it isn’t pretty. It’s the Democrat party.
That is, if you do not believe in Holy virtues and Holy sacraments, by *default* you embrace their opposites. That is, Deadly Sins replace both, and you become immoral, or amoral (’pigs’) beings.
This means if you truly want to understand them, not become them, you must study such sins so you can see it reflected in them. Likewise, evil pagan gods were created to try and fill the vast spiritual space, the emptiness within. And so such false gods appeal to the sins.
Take Moloch, for example. A fire would be built in its altar, then parents would offer up their children for horrible burnt sacrifice, with the promise from the priests of Moloch that they would receive earthly rewards and wealth in exchange.
This was such an abomination that God ordered not just those involved with the cult to be killed, but even those who allowed them to live in their area should be killed.
Yet the cult of Moloch the false god still exists today, in other forms, its priests still promising prosperity in exchange for the sacrifice of children. Millions of children have died in such sacrifices, with no apparent gain for those parents who offered them up.
And this is just one of the Deadly Sins evils that exists due to an absence in the belief in God.
"Knowing" and "causing" are two different things.
Most conservatives don’t either.
They don’t like owning up to the responsibility of having to bear consequences for their thoughts, worldview, or actions.
Judgement Day will be very entertaining.
“”Knowing” and “causing” are two different things.”
Regardless. It is preordained. We cannot use free-will to change our destiny.
How do you know? Do you know what your destiny is?
Had God not existed, and were it possible for us to evolve naturally, then it’s not free will that ceases to exist, but morality.
We have the ability to think and we have the ability to choose. Thus we are not predestined based on our biological inheritance. Free will, had we evolved to our current state, would still exist. But there would be no eternal consequences to that free will, only societal constraints.
Morality ceases to be an absolute. Life ceases to be sacred. Taboos become defined by society and not a higher being. Thus “cannibalism is okay because all cultures are equal”, ceases to be sarcastic.
Arkanciding a few hundred political opponents and loose ends on a journey to gain wealth, fame and power, becomes simply a free will choice instead of sin. It might still be disgusting to society at large, but the rewards if done successfully are what are absolute, not morality.
The refrain used by homosexuals “I have to be true to myself”, becomes sensible. As opposed to scriptures warning to align our desires with God’s and renew our minds through scripture.
Jerimiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Collosians 3:5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
12Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. 15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
“How do you know? Do you know what your destiny is?”
I don’t but God does and I can’t change it.
As I once said to one of my college roommates who was an atheist.
“Who cares if my random chemical process terminates your random chemical process?”
His response, “Well I think you’re taking this random chemical process idea too far.”
How do you know?
What is the purpose of intercessory prayer?
If There Is No God, Can Free Will Truly Exist?
= = =
Do Amoebas have Free Will?
‘Cause that’s where we come from, right?
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