What is this the third or fourth time? No, I asked you a question:
If Free Will was demonstrated to be true, would you accept it?
The point of course was for you to demonstrate it by answering the question. Which you obliged.
You pick one or the other. Got that? And the choice will all be yours.
Got it. And thanks again for the demonstration.
But, it seems, your answer to the question is "No."
thanks for your reply.
Like I said before, I thought maybe we were going to get something interesting out of this exchange.
Instead, your daffy punch line is "see, you answered the question. You have free will."
BZZZ! Wrong.
Do you think God knew I was going to answer your inept question? When would He have known this? Probably from the moment He created all existence. Probably even before that, since there is no time constraint with God.
It is Scripturally-accurate to say that God had a plan and purpose when He created the world, and that that plan and purpose were perfect to achieve whatever He desired.
Within that plan and purpose is every person's choice for every decision made on earth for all time.
Or else He's a pretty incompetent diety who doesn't really know what's going on here on planet Earth while His plan for creation can be thwarted and His purpose nullified by His own fallible creature. That's truly inconceivable if God is who He says He is.
Moreover, this divine prescience isn't limited to simply "knowing beforehand." Because nothing exists before God's desire for something to exist. He is the first cause of all things, and that fact establishes second causes. It is poetic and true to state that we live God's thoughts after Him. And that includes every "choice" we make.
Now these choices certainly feel free and unfettered, but if there is a God and if that God is who He says He is, then life is unfolding exactly as He wants it to unfold at every particular moment along the way. Read your Bible.
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." -- Col. 1:16-17"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
I realize free will types think they're oh-so-sophisticated and rational and astute. Just as I once thought I was when I dismissed God's sovereign control over all things, "visible and invisible."
And then, thank God, I was given a better, truer perspective. One which actually requires a renewed mind which is able to hold on to the paradox while not denying it.
So bottom line, you have NOT demonstrated free will because you have NOT demonstrated that my decision to do anything was determined by some kind of libertarian free will, and not according to the will and purpose of God. You remember that God? The one who "declared the end from the beginning."
Your "demonstration" is null and void. You lose.
If you're ever so inclined, some morning when you have nothing more pressing to do, read the following argument by a stalwart Italian (no less.) Writing like this changed my mind and my life. It's no small thing. And we who now love God's predestination of all things hope the rest of the world comes to the same joyful, satisfying knowledge of this often confusing, seemingly contradictory life on earth. (I've pinged a few others who might be interested in the link.)