Free Will

[Dead right]

I've watched a lot of the free-will debates

As I have also and would tend to agree with you, God or no God man is free to live forever or die trying.

[youjustcomplain]

My position isn't that god exists or that we don't have free will. My position is that there is no evidence to suggest that we don't have free will. I don't have to believe that we do have free will, but I do believe it anyhow.

I, too, can pick my nose and I don't think that god planned it.

[Jlabute]

Looking for honest answers to, what I think is, a simple question.

The question is mostly for those who believe in god. The god that watches over us, answers our prayers, sends us to heaven. The god that is all knowing and eternal

Question: Do we have free will?

I'm curious of anyone who believes in god and believes we have free will. Not in an attacking or insulting way though mind you.

Here is how I see things.
If god is all powerful and all knowing, then wouldn't god know my actions before I make them? If god knows what I'll do in the future, then do I have the ability to do something different?

Example, if in 3 years time, I was to run over a rabbit, god would have known I would do that. Could I have done things differently to avoid the rabbit? If god knew it was going to happen, then I'd think that god knew about all of the events that lead up to that moment too.
This suggests to me that I don't have the ability to choose what I want to do. I don't have free will.


If I have free will, does that mean god isn't all knowing? Without god being all knowing, is he worthy of worship?

Having free will does not mean God would stop you from making poor choices or from having accidents. It is more important that you can be judged for your actions resulting from your free will, and more important that you endure what all mankind endures.

A biblical perspective:

Matthew 5:45, "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust".

[Glacier]

My position isn't that god exists or that we don't have free will. My position is that there is no evidence to suggest that we don't have free will. I don't have to believe that we do have free will, but I do believe it anyhow.

I, too, can pick my nose and I don't think that god planned it.

So it's a way of making life make sense (without free-will, it's easy to go to a very dark place)?

I also believe in free-will.

[youjustcomplain]

Having free will does not mean God would stop you from making poor choices or from having accidents. It is more important that you can be judged for your actions resulting from your free will, and more important that you endure what all mankind endures.

A biblical perspective:

Matthew 5:45, "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust".

Murderers, rapists, child molesters, Hitler, etc..

Did this god choose to not intervene when he could have?
If god is all knowing and all powerful, then he knows when a child will be raped, and chooses to do nothing? Does that mean he's not good?

If god is all knowing and good, and can't prevent these awful actions, is he all powerful?

If god is good and all powerful but doesn't know what we'll do, is he all knowing?


I think that these are going to be tough to reconcile for an all powerful, all knowing, god who's worthy of worship. I don't see how god is all three in the first place, but if he is, we surely don't have free will otherwise, this good god would have created a different species that doesn't harm others.

[Bigbacardi]

God is too busy making sure specific sports players/teams win, while others lose.
There is no time to be concerned about the poor or sick or weak....
But then again, in my opinion, it's all about supporting a weak mind.
A strong mind can easily see the issues with believing in an entity....