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Lv 6

If a being prevents someone else from doing something, does that eliminate free will?

"the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion."

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/am...

Essentially there's this argument that if God steps in to prevent evil from happening, then we cannot have free will. Free will is something God wants us to have (he doesn't want robots). Therefore, God chooses not to intervene.

However, I don't think the first premise is true. Think of it this way: If you had the power to stop a person from raping another person (I choose this example because it is something clearly and obviously immoral), and you succeeded in stopping this person, does that mean that you took away this person's free will given the definition above?

If so, how

If not, then I fail to see how replacing yourself with "God" makes any crucial difference.

5 Answers

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  • 7 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Long answer...

    I flatly reject any such concept of intellectual 'freedom' (of will).

    Free will is the old stand-by when Christians try to explain the silly notion of God’s omnipotence. They say “God knows what we are going to do but we have a choice anyway.”

    Personally this argument for me goes back to my teen days in the back seat of a ‘55 Buick (lots of room) trying to score with a Catholic girl.

    Before being old enough to shave I questioned “Free Will”. It always conflicted with Determinism...God’s omnipotent knowing of all things past present and future.

    “Free will” took the blame away from God and made us all sinners. An integral portion of all religions (OK, citation needed). Along with the God of Abraham’s gift of Original Sin we also got infested with Free Will. Free will was our nose ring. Thank you God! Tooth decay, hemorrhoids and cancer were other splendid gifts. Not to mention Hell.

    I was told that God gave this intellectual "free will" to test our devotion to Him and earn our place in Heaven with Him. LOL Oh, this means a perfect creator needs to test his creation? Why didn’t He just create us "In His perfect image" and in his perfect Heaven and forget all the testing? This silly anthropomorphic God was a Drama Queen.

    The Church fathers topped that silliness with the Gospels and the reopening of the Gates of Heaven through bloody sacrifice of God’s only son. (A perfect God could only have one son?)

    IMO the decisions the we animals make can only be reaction to the intake of our five senses. If that intake included the teaching of a scary and stern supernatural warning that by ignoring God one will burn in Hell forever!!! Well now...that fear could weigh very heavily on any life's choices...Ergo we are not free when fear in the mix. We are not even free without the Christian fear factor. In my mind that made the God of the Bible look like a simpleton game player with a sadistic, murderous temper.

  • 7 years ago

    If you physically stopped someone from rapping another person that's not taking their free will. Free even from the implication from the definition above it means the ability to think on a situation then decide on the outcome of it whether good or bad. If you mentally control someone's mind that indeed is taking their free will. It's not the act doing something then being stopped physically that takes away your free will. It is the process of making decisions in your mind that's free will.

  • 5 years ago

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    where does anyone get the idea they have complete free will ? It DOES NOT teach that anywhere in the Bible.....we have a CHOICE to Obey God or deny God.....Follow Him or reject Him.....accept Him or deny Him.....that is ALL !!!!

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  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    God allows everyone to choose good or evil

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