Uh dude, can I ask how old you are? Since I'm asking you, I'll go on record as being 30 y/o.
Originally posted by turbo
You and the world knows I'm right.
Are you for real? Based on what TurboMike has said (that's who this comment was directed at, right?) I don't believe he thinks you are right.
I certainly don't think you are right. I bet if I set up a poll (which I will not b/c I don't want to waste BW)
and people actually took the time to vote, I think you'd be voted
AT LEAST 51% wrong!
As was said earlier, are you reading all the posts and really thinking about what has been said, or are you mainly thinking about what you want to say in your next post?
(I'm clicking the "edit" button and adding my answer in blocks. I found that if I type it out all at once, I'll usually lose everything into electronic never-never land)
Originally posted by turbo
why would anyone want to have free will to kill or commit a crime?
If I grew up in the ghetto, and my mother was a crack ho, and I never knew my father, my house is a nasty slum, I'm lucky to have a worn out coat to keep me warm in the winter, etc, and I happen to see you walking down the street in your nice clothes, or you left your Buick in front of the quickie-mart running with the doors unlocked, I am going to commit the crime of grand theft auto with very little thought - or if I happen to have a gun in my pocket, I'll probably car-jack your cracker-butt. I would be pretty bummed if GOD limited my free will to go cruising in your fly ride. I'd also be pretty bummed b/c I wouldn't really have the free will to choose to change my life for the better. Maybe I will, and maybe I won't, but it's nice to think that I can have at least that!
Originally posted by turbo
Seems like you don't agree...killing loved ones is fine with you just so you can maintain the wonderful gift of free will.
Seems like you want to put words in someone else's mouth. I've "known" TurboMike since nearly the beginning of tb.com. If anything happened to his wife & kids I don't know how devastated he would be, but it surely would NOT be fine with him. There has been many a christian who have changed their belief because they have lost someone close to them, and they choose to turn away from God. God would not take my wife from me. I'm a good person, I go to church, I help the poor, etc. Why is God "punishing" me???
The "wonderful gift of free will" is not his to maintain. But think about this: if you limit free will in even the slightest way, then you cannot say there is free will. If there is not total free will, then we don't really have individual choice, and we can't be held totally responsible for our choices. If we can't be held totally responsible for our choices, the we wouldn't be able to truly be judged for the choices that we have made.
Of course, these concept totally clash with the beliefs that I have in Calvinistic ideas - but then it has been something for me to work at reconciling calvinistic ideas with those of free will, but that is a separate issue altogether.
Originally posted by turbo
Faith is non-logical, that's why it is callled FAITH, not FACT.
If it works for you, that's what makes it important. Have some individual thought without parroting.
Again.... why would anyone want to have free will to kill or commit a crime? It's just a limitation not a total denial of free will that I'm talking about. You and the world knows I'm right.
I'm sure the moms, dads, sisters, brothers and relatives of the men that have been killed or will be killed in Iraq would have some interesting comments about free will. I know I would give it up (killing and crime) to make sure my brother wasn't killed over there. Seems like you don't agree...killing loved ones is fine with you just so you can maintain the wonderful gift of free will.
It would certainly be nice if there were no more killing in the world. I would be even nicer if there was no more robbery or rape too. But while we're making our pefect world, we'd have to pay attention to overpopulation (and the starvation that would follow) but why stop there, there's global environmental damage (we don't want to kill ourselve by destroying our environment, right?) racial prejudice, child molestation, cruelty to animals, not enough drag strips, not enough money for the Buick, the list goes on... We live in an imperfect world. Someone that doesn't really understand GOD asks "Why does God let bad things happen?" Either he is not all powerful, or it just doesn't make sense to me why he let's it happen?
I don't think any
LIVING person has the ability to understand God 100%. I sure don't. I look at it as being similar to the condition between a child and his/her parents. A 5 yr old would not "understand" why mommy get's mad at daddy because daddy was looking at some other grown up (who was a gorgeous supermodel in a swimsuit) but it's no mystery to us as adults! So I feel it is a similar situation between human beings and God. I think that a living person
CANNOT understand God 100% (if they did, they would pretty much
BE like God themselves)
Have you seen "Bruce Almighty" when Jim Carrey decides to grant eveyone's prayers without finding out what they are first? And thousands of people win the lottery, but because so many people win the lottery, each person only wins @ 50 cents.
So
I can't tell you
EXACTLY why god "allows" so much bad in the world. About the best I could do is share my
beliefs as to why b/c I've wondered a lot about that myself. I don't believe any normal living person has the ability to understand God 100%. You would have to turn into a person like Jesus or Moses to be able to "understand" god, but it doesn't seem like something that you'd be able to achieve by yourself.
what do you say about that?
