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Author Topic:   Does god have free will?
Tusko
Member (Idle past 122 days)
Posts: 615
From: London, UK
Joined: 10-01-2004


Message 5 of 128 (147144)
10-04-2004 8:31 AM
Reply to: Message 4 by coffee_addict
10-04-2004 4:34 AM


God Chucks A Sickie
I really like the idea that God doesn't have any room for free will. If he is constrained by the goodness of his own nature, then what's he supposed to do if he wants to take a day off, kick back and have some fun?
I guess that people might try to get out of it by talking about His very special nature. He is in the unique position of being perfect, they might say, and so special rules might apply because of this. I'd be interested to see someone rehearse this argument actually, because I'm not sure how it would go.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 4 by coffee_addict, posted 10-04-2004 4:34 AM coffee_addict has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 7 by arachnophilia, posted 10-05-2004 12:37 AM Tusko has not replied

  
Tusko
Member (Idle past 122 days)
Posts: 615
From: London, UK
Joined: 10-01-2004


Message 17 of 128 (147418)
10-05-2004 7:13 AM
Reply to: Message 16 by coffee_addict
10-05-2004 4:15 AM


Re: Picture This...
I'm not actually a fundamentalist, so maybe I shouldn't be posting here - sorry if that's the case. I just felt prompted to write to have you talk a bit more about free will. If I'm reading your right, it seems as though you think that a God without free will was a nonsense; I just wanted to examine that a bit, if that's okay.
Maybe you're right, and the God that fundamnentalists posit can't properly be described as having free will. I suppose they say that he won't ever do anything "evil" (although there seems to be some scriptural evidence that he's got quite an esoteric understanding of what constitutes a good action - but that's another story).
But does it matter? I think the idea of free will make more sense when it is applied to mortal, finite beasties like ourselves. Can the concept of free-will be meaningfully applied to something that can do pretty much anything if it wanted?
Don't they see God as the ultimate free agent, who maybe short of a square triangle, and a really heavy rock, can do what he likes? And if God has supposedly been chosing to be good since the beginning of time (maybe treating Job that way WAS nice, who knows?), isn't that his perogative?
I'm just asking; as you can see, I'm pretty vague. If I'm missing the point, please be gentle with me.

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