I guess I just believe that this evidence is already here, but I can respect your views.Originally Posted by bu villain
Great questions...If you don't mind, I'm curious as to your answers on these questions. If they don't apply to your concept of God, just say so.
1. What motivates an all powerful being to do anything?
2. Why would you choose to believe in an all powerful benevolent god as apposed to an unfathomably powerful alien who has merely created the universe as an experiment?
3. Do people have free will? If so, why would God give us free only to punish us for making choices He doesn't approve of?
1. Depends on the character that you believe that being has. I believe that God by definition has to do certain things to maintain His own integrity. Some of these things include anger, jealousy and other emotion type things that we would consider to be bad characteristics, but are justified in the context of which God demonstrates. I believe that there is more to creation than just the universe as we currently understand it. but I'd like to put forward the thought that God is not God if he allows people to act outside of his law, or if he is okay with people worshiping and uplifting other deities above him. these two things under mind the Godhood of God. If he falters on these rules he demonstrates that he is not God at all because he has relinqushed authority to another. Think about parents that you see who relinquish there authority to their children. the kids become the authority unto themselves and the parent has to fight to regain it. This is demonstrated all over the place.
2. Because I don't see reasonable evidence to assume that the universe is designed by the types of aliens that fly around in saucers...even though I believe they are very real, I don't believe that a community of aliens would be exempt from explaining their origins. But the simple answer is that there is no evidence for that...unless you want to call God an alien because he does not originate on earth. But there is evidence that suggests, by theorists that extra terrestrial beings acknowledge a higher presence...but the UFO stuff is a thread that is waiting for BabyJ to get started...I would love to talk about that because it is very intriguing to me and I believe that our biblical history has evidence of extra terrestrial life visiting earth.
yeah we sort of agree on the other questions but not this one.3) ppl do have free will. i don't think it is a matter of God punishing us per se. i think it boils down to the universal laws of action and reaction. the short answer is, the universe is designed to function according to God's will - physically and spiritually. if you CHOOSE to operate outside of these parameters, then just like anything else, those actions have consequences. this doesn't take into account the random sh!t that happens to everybody, good or bad. this is a subject that's debated a lot.
3. I don't believe people have free will. This is deeper than I can go, but two free wills cannot exist in this case. As soon as the two wills oppose one another then freedom is no longer for one or both of those wills. So the philosophical answer is no. Based on my worldview, my will cannot trump that of God therefore it cannot be free. I can only do that which is allowed based on the will of God. My will is subject to another therefore I cannot have a free will. I do not believe that I can act outside of his will. Even though I have the ability to make choices, the options on the table are limited. They are limited to the revelation of the universe that has provided me. I will not choose to do things that I have no knowledge or awareness of. ***Think of a multiple choice question where you can choose A,B,C, or D, but you don't have the ability to write in your answer. You demonstrate the ability to choose freely, but your options are limited based on what has been provided to you. I wrote more about this in a previous post in this thread.
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