God and Good Parenting

Personally I really don't like to discuss issues in the 'faith and belief', 'Bible inerrancy' and similar philosophical rooms, but I'll play for a moment.

quote:

---

My counter-question: How would you describe parents that would leave a loaded shotgun in the middle of their children's perfect playroom? Is that good parenting behavior to you?

---

--What if you took the shotgun out of the playroom, your child would turn into a robot? My question stems from the apparent fact that as long as there is free will, there will always be love and hate. I don't think God made shotguns at creation, but he made materials from which humans want to make shotguns.Cheers,
-Chris Grose

quote:

---

I think Crashfrog may be talking about leaving a loaded Tree of Knowledge in the children's playroom.

---

--This only increases the pertinence of my question, if you took it out of the playpen, your child would turn into a robot, mindlessly doing what its parents want him to. You could say that your child still is doing what he wants to do, but disallowing him or her to freely access any one thing that is physically possible places an artificial constraint on the child's living. Similarly, if God took away anything which is evil, or could potentially be evil, we would not have a free will. I think.Cheers,
-Chris Grose[This message has been edited by TrueCreation, 01-10-2004]

quote:

---

Can we assume, then, that you leave dangerous tools/weapons around your children?

---

--But is this a good analog to what God supposedly did in Genesis? I would hardly call a tree of knowledge a weapon.

quote:

---

I find these "evil = free will" arguments lame at best. Humans have been trying to eliminate evil for all of history, as a result we live longer, healthier, and happier lives. There's certainly no sign that we're losing free will as a result.

---

--I would hardly call bacteria evil. There is a difference here, bacteria is objective, what takes place in our mind is not.

quote:

---

Anyway how much free will can you excercize after your sibling has accidentally blown your head off? Evil restricts free will,by definition. It doesn't increase it.

---

--?? I would think that if you remove evil, you can only 'choose' good. So then, if you remove the choice of evil, are you not putting a constraint on 'free will'?Cheers,
-Chris Grose
OYSI