Comments on: What is God?

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:00:39 +0000

1) I’m not sure that I know God’s definition of boring. Did ya like the
pseudo-analogy though?

2) Maybe God utilizes his power to control by giving us free will.

3) Wassup Da-Veed?

By: Perry

Perry — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:40:59 +0000

Michelle, what is the source of your contention that God “didn’t create everything”? The Bible clearly says that God did create everything.

Deborah, why do you believe that God wouldn’t want a boring universe? If God is all-powerful then he has the power to control the choice of people. Thus, free will isn’t possible with an all-powerful God.

By: Dedwarmo

Dedwarmo — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:21:48 +0000

Michelle, are there things that happen that are beyond God’s control? If that is the case then how can you say that God is omnipotent.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:35:30 +0000

God created free will. Through God, I created my children. How boring and unknowing it would be if they did not have free will and I was able to produce only good in them through (whatever) controlling methods. When they come to me choosing good, and having been only influenced by me, is this not ultimate love and knowledge to a parent and child?

We were made in his image. Yes, he created evil and free will.
He may not want to hit us over the head with a 2 x 4 to gain the love and ultimate knowledge of our good. We have choices……. and what a compliment to our parent to choose him when we have been given his influence and free will and not total control.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:11:25 +0000

OK, three points, if you’ll be patient with me: existence of evil, existence of hell, and free will.

Perhaps evil isn’t something that is “made.” Presumably God is love (well, if God exists, that’s what one hopes), yet love is not something s/he created. If this passage is talking about things as entities, then evil doesn’t have to be something that’s made. I’m not implying that God therefore necessarily is evil as well as good; evil may just be a consequence of creating relational individuals.

Clearly God (if there be one) did not create everything. God did not create concrete. S/he created the raw materials perhaps, but not concrete.

Not all Christians believe in hell (Origen, universalists, some emergents)–in fact, some argue that most early Christians didn’t believe in hell (see Wiki: universalism for instance–sorry no link, I don’t do HTML).

And process/neoclassical theology redefines omnipotence–it does not contain coerciveness, thus free will is possible. (Of course there are other arguments against free will).

Finally, I’ve never understood how foreknowledge negates free will. Certainly it could be argued to negate God’s kindness (i.e., if there is a hell, and God foreknew that most people–or anyone–would go there, then God was cruel to create the world in the first place–thus the theodicy triad is still a problem). But I can “know” a person is going to do something (though certainly not with the same certainty that an omniscient God would “know”), and I could have had the power to do something about it but didn’t, yet I still will not be infringing on that other person’s choice. Maybe I’m missing some part of the foreknowledge = no free will argument?

Michelle

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:03:02 +0000

well, everything’s made up.

By: dedwarmo

dedwarmo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:34:40 +0000

I think the founders of Judaism and Christianity had good intentions. The Bible contains great wisdom and guidance. Some things are just a little hard to swallow.

By: Perry

Perry — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:17:03 +0000

Good point. Free Will can not exist if an all-knowing, all-powerful God exists. If God is all-powerful then he already knows the choices you are going to make and ultimately whether he’ll put you in hell or not.

For me, it all sounds a little made up.