I'd point out at this stage that our will isn't free in the sense created by God in Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, I'd argue were the first and last (bar Christ) to have a free, unfettered will. Once sin entered man, man's will was skewed by an addiction. An addiction and tendency towards Sin.
An addiction that was imparted by God.
We can't speak of an addict having a free will. So I usually put the word 'effective' before the words 'free will' when talking of the will of post-fall humans. The imbalance caused by our natures addiction to sin is countered by conscience which gives our choice an balance as if we had an Adamic style free will.
But you seem to speak of man's "nature" as if God would have had nothing to do with it, as if it just sort of happened. If God in fact created in man his desires, then is he not complicit for how his own creation responds to sin?
Indeed there is no reason to have ever allowed for sin in the first place, as best I can tell. And then in stories like Job he wagers bets on us. Job's whole family dies in this cosmic bet between himself and another one of his creations, Satan. Job's whole family was expendable so long as it proved a point to Satan.
Free will as I understand it, involves the ability to chose equally either way; without predisposition or undue influence pushing you in a particular direction.
But that obviously is not true. How could it be? If God imparts the very desire to sin, nothing could be done apart from his intentions and his own will. God not only knows the decision we make before we do (which in and of itself makes freewill questionable) but he also is the driven compulsion to sin.
Gods ultimate purpose for all of us is that we have opportunity to say yes/no to his desire to form an eternal loving relationship with us.
Then why is God vague? Why does God place a thousand barriers between himself and us? Why have us here on earth, going through these pointless motions if ultimately he just wants us with him? Why prolong what he ultimately wants? That seemed to work out just fine for the angels. What sense is there in making trillions of different species, some that are yet to be discovered by man in some deep oceanic cavern miles beneath the surface?
That is one question never questioned or answered in the bible. Why do we exist in the physical realm at all?
When you add up the anomalies and the inconsistencies, it surely appears that God did not create man, but rather man created God to explain that which his mind cannot fully comprehend.
Inflicting evil involves the suffering of a guilty conscience.
Vlad the Impailer didn't seem too conflicted, lest impailing thousands of people through the rectum so that it would come out the mouth seems merciful.
Experiencing evil involves the suffering of being treated unrighteously. All people do both. And so all people suffer. Suffering is natures (and thus God's) way of telling us that there is something wrong. And there is something wrong: we're lost sinners heading towards wrath.
Our minds, as depraved as they are, are ultimately the responsibility and creation of God himself. You can say that we have freewill. In a sense, sure, we have some option not to do something to avoid retribution or avoiding some consequence. But that is the greatest motivation, and it is a selfish one.
All these emotions, all of our thoughts, are the result of God's doing, his design, and his plan. Because indeed if you believe that God is omnisicent, then you all but would have to concede that he is responsible for the way we are -- the good and the bad. And he seems indifferent to it.
You're suggesting that God should eliminate one of the central things that might bring us to our knees before God? To do so would diminish the opportunity for our salvation - why on earth should God do that.
Being the principle cause of man's suffering and then offering salvation is like maliciously kicking a man in the teeth and then treating his wounds. And what's worse, if you don't accept your tormentor's treatment, he'll execute you outright.
Now what kind of a "choice" is that really? What kind of free will is that? Sure, there is a superficial
appearance of free will. We literally can say yes or no to, but your only options are made up for you. Ultimately there is no free will involved, for God creates the rules of the game.
It's like creating a chess playing computer that can make different decisions based on algorithyms. Sure, it can "choose" different moves. It is not consigned to making a move that would kill it. But looking at the bigger picture, that computer program can only do what it was coded to do by its Maker.
The program cannot decide not to play the game. And just like the program, we cannot decide not to play God's game. He is our Programmer and we have no real choices.
He gives almost no evidence that he even exists, which is tempting in and of itself to shirk it off and just go live life. Then when you die, he says you never accepted me. To hell with you. Or you can just blindly submit to your own tormentor and hope he'll spare your soul. But your whole life here will be devoted to the nothingness and hoping that somehow you're right and that your life devoted to this mystery is not all bullshit and a huge waste of what precious time you have alive on this earth.
So, yeah, in some sense we do have a choice. But it's like choosing which testicle you want to be kicked in. Right or the left, pick yer poison. Not much of a choice, now is it?
He want's us saved and went to extraordinary personal suffering to enable that.
Did he? Was it necessary? Because if it were not necessary then it is immaterial. It did not have to be like this, so God's suffering is immaterial and indeed appears self-righteous.
Thousands upon thousands of people have suffered intensely in the name of God. Thousands upon thousands of been immolated and hung from the cross before, during, and after the time of Jesus.
Do you have any evidence, whatsoever, that they are sitting at the right hand of God?
There is not much deduce here other than these are fables from people trying to find some kind of meaning and purpose to life. But we are no more equipped to answer these questions than our forefathers before us.
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams
™ Version 4.2
