Posted on 11/21/2002 8:14:40 PM PST by FreetheSouth!
Our bodies are like the computer hardware (for many of us "older bodies", it's like the IBM px/xt computer model, exotic at one time, but pretty worn out by now ). Our souls are the software programming. Out bodies will perish, the media containing our information may perish, but the information that represents our souls will live forever.
Men are not just the sum of inanimate programming. God gave man sentience, and within certain parameters, a "free will". Freedom always comes with constraints. We may operate as if that is not true when discussing philosophy or religion, but we betray that contention in the way we live our limited lives.
Your argument on "freewill" is the juxtiposition of the famliar rant that occurs with every disaster, rape, or murder, e.g. "How could a loving God allow this to happen to innocents?!" The answer is: "How could a loving God NOT allow man that freedom. We'd be robots! Robots can never sentiently chose to love God.
Freedom is a double edged sword, i.e. the same freedom that produced the Good Samaritan also allowed the thugs who beat and rob the victim in the first place. God is the ultimate "pro-choicer". Man can't blame God for "acts of God" AND for constraining freedom simultaneously. The problem of chaos and evil in this world is due to the sin of mankind.
However, God also promises accountability and reward. God's states clearly: All have sinned (i.e. HUGE error dump!!), and will be doomed because of our choice.
God's solution: There is only one who has not sinned, who is absolutely good. There is only one who has already paid the price, who has paid YOUR price. There is only one way to be saved from the corruption that sin has wrought. Jesus Christ. Those who accept Him as their Lord and Savior will have the reward of eternal life.
Wise men who earnestly seek wisdom, order, and goodness will find it in Christ.
God Bless.. SFS
Whether or not you posit the existence of God, there is still a "free will vs. determinism" problem.
For example, if it turns out that it is possible for me to travel into the future, and there is a fixed future for me to travel into, then it would seem I have no free will. No matter what I do I will end up at the same future.
Of course there's a bunch of thought regarding parallel universes, etc. but none of this touches on the "problem of evil" which is entirely different.
If you lined up all of the arguments on one side or the other, the arguments stating that there is no free will pretty much whomp on those in favor of free will.
Still, I believe passionately in free will regardless. I was most likely predestined to do so!
There are a number of ways to approach this problem: assuming God's existence, or assuming no God. Thinking about a single universe, multiple unrelated universes, or multiple related universes. Limited God vs. infinite God. Materialism vs. Idealism, etc.
Most of the good arguments are in favor of predestination. Your (and my) own intuition is in favor of free will.
I believe there will be an answer to this question and I don't believe that the Calvinists or other simple-minded folk have come up with the answer ... although they love to self-righteously trumpet the supposed fact that they have solved this problem ... or that they read it in some King James Bible somewhere (with special magical glasses of course that other interpreters don't seem to have access to.)
P.S.: Let the flames begin. I need some practice for when I get to go skinny-dipping in the fiery lakes.
Nope, just preknown. We experience time as linear, and can only go forward.
God on the other hand lives out side the 4 dimensions we can know,
and can see the beginning and the end. Hard concept for me for sure,
but about the only way I can make any sense of it.
Some wag said I think, you have to be crazy to understand quantum theory.
Check here for some good stuff on this subject. khouse.org
No mass, no time. Jesus was able to recreate his earthly body inside
a closed room, when he appeared to the deciples. They thought he>br> was a spirit. But "doubting" Thomas placed his hand in the wound
in His side, proving that he was flesh and bone. Not by the way
"Flesh and Blood"
Does a thought have mass, time dimension? If not what is it?
Where does it go, when we die?
Oh, well, thanks for setting me straight. Nothing like having an arrogant expert to help out a poor dunderhead like me.
You have "problems" about free will, the existence of God, and determinism. I have answers, informed by God's Word the Bible, and consistent with the world as we find it. I am completely content to live and die in my faith in these simplistic answers.
I thank God that I never finished up that PHd in Philosophy, otherwise I might be an arrogant expert with lots of problems too.
FReegards, SFS
LOL you guys are so punny!
Some Christians believe so.
Some Christians believe so.
Oops - here:
Is Calvinism Inconsistent with Free Will? - Loraine Boettner
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