I was having a conversation with a Christian friend about free will. My friend tried explaining that "god" gave us free will. This was the explanation provided:
He created you knowing all things. He gives us free will for us to choose whatever but He already knows what we were going to choose. Just like when we ask a friend a question and we predict what they were going to say and we respond by saying โI knew you were going to say thatโ. We didnโt force them. We predicted their response. It is still free will. And all of this can be directed to God. You can ask Him and He will reveal it to you.
I was like what???
We might be able to predict what our friends say but we don't claim to be omnipotent so we are not able to influence what they do. Humans created both God and the devil as a crutch. It's psychology... One to look to for strength or what ever else, and the other to blame for their immoralities. Probably they genuinely thought that they were onto something based on the knowledge available during their time. They were probably just trying to explain what seemed unexplainable to them. But then they adulterated the one created for 'good' reasons to satisfy their human desires. So...
God's "divine plan," perhaps. This contradiction is one of the more popular challenges to a belief in an omniscient creator.
"Free will" might be an illusion. The theory being, if one could calculate the physical world down to the smallest details, then it would seem that everything, including our thoughts, are purely mechanical and acting in accordance with the laws that set them in motion, aka Determinism. What happens must happen the way it does, having been calculated thus. Very esoteric stuff.
Corollary to this is the idea that there may not be any randomness in the universe. If true, that would also interrupt the idea of free will.
If our decisions are determined by brain matter then our thoughts result from firing neurons and electrical impulses. These firings probably are in concert with Quantum Physics which appears to have randomness. We feel as we are in command of our thoughts but actually our brain is doing all the thinking for us.
@Grecio Agree on all points, except that the smaller levels we have been able to detect in quantum physics, while they appear to be random, may only seem that way perhaps because we don't yet understand their behavior. We don't have the math for it yet.
@Shawno1972 Excellent response. Thanks. As Science progresses, we may discover that the Quantum is actually deterministic. I think many people see the mind and the soul as being the same thing. However, brain injuries can cause a person's perceptions and behavior to change drastically as if their soul has changed. People sometimes say "I believe it with all my heart and soul." I have never figured out what that means. What is "heart"?
You said, "Humans created both God and the devil as a crutch."
If humans created God and the devil #1 you are agreeing with biblical text, #2 you say since they were created, then you say they exist.
The concept of gods and devils were created by humans. That is one of the most widely held 'beliefs' in atheism no matter how it is phrased. So what are you saying?
Humans also created unicorns, fairies and leprechauns does not mean they actually exist.
@Joanne The biblical text refers to the unicorn that really exist. Because biblical text went to people and places that was unaware of the existence of the unicorn, the unicorn got a mystical magical reputation.
The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), also called the greater one-horned rhinoceros and great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as populations are fragmented and restricted to less than 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi). Moreover, the extent and quality of the rhino's most important habitat, alluvial grassland and riverine forest, is considered to be in decline due to human and livestock encroachment. As of 2008, a total of 2,575 mature individuals were estimated to live in the wild.[1]
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The unicorn was depicted in ancient seals of the Indus Valley Civilization and was mentioned by the ancient Greeks in accounts of natural history by various writers, including Ctesias, Strabo, Pliny the Younger, Aelian[2] and Cosmas Indicopleustes.[3] The Bible also describes an animal, the re'em, which some versions translate as unicorn.[2] wikipedia
@Word You are so far off base. How is it possible for you to not understand the very simple thought that was put forward? Do you not understand the meanings of the 'words'?
Humans created the concepts of God and the devil. That does not mean that either God or the devil exists. So how is that 'agreeing with biblical text'? You missed the whole point of the post... Humans create super super heroes with great powers in movies but it does not mean they exist in the real world. Humans create abstract beings in other forms of art but it does not mean they exist anywhere else but in their minds or on paper or whichever media they use to communicate their creation to the world outside their heads.
I hope Joanne's explanation helped you if this still hasn't.
@HumanistA you said "but in their minds or on paper or whichever media they use to communicate their creation to the world outside their heads."
You are confirming the genius of the biblical text. So long as Christian's exist, Jesus exist. Why?because Christian is the body of Christ with the mind of Christ.
1 Cor. 2:16 for, "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Cor. 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
This is Jesus style God. The fact that Christians exist is the fact that Jesus exist.
End christianity, kill Jesus style God.
@Word Are you sure you haven't eaten Darth Vader?
You know what they say, "you are what you eat"... The hint to this is that I'm saying you are delusional.
I'm confirming the genius of the people who wrote such an amazing (well except for the expansive inconsistencies) piece of literature with characters that are of no more value to me than Superman, nor exist in the real world no more than Superman.
So, in the spirit of what you are are saying, as Superman fan, as long as I exist so does Superman. Why? Because in the DC universe Superman exists and I believe I live in the DC universe.
Since I live in the DC universe, โthere is a superhero in all of us, we just need the courage to put on the cape" (Superman). If I put on a cape I will get my superhuman powers too and fight supervillains just like Superman and all his Justice League colleagues.
"Krypton bred me, but it was earth that gave me all I am."
See what I did there? I strayed from the point just like you did.
@HumanistA you say "...nor exist in the real world no more than Superman."
Complicated work of genius.
This is a start to seeing that there are peices of the puzzle with verfication.
[biblicalarchaeology.org]