Creation as God's free act
Christians say that God created or made all things from nothing of his own free will!
Free will is thought to be the power to do something totally out of character or to change your character just in seconds. This is the doctrine of indeterminism which says free will is unprogrammed. But that amounts to saying that your choice comes out of nowhere. Thus it is not really a choice though it may feel like it. If God has that kind of free will then it follows that it makes more sense to say free will made all things than God! Free will is either programmed or it is not and either way it is not really as free as it seems to be. It is still something that does not confer responsibility on you or God either. It is not fair to say it does.
If we have undetermined or entirely self-caused free will then God, if he is the bigger and better version of us who are supposedly made in his image, will have it better or more than us.
Christians ignore the fact that free will makes no sense and they do not want to think that free will is a blind force which would mean that if God has free will then free will gets the credit for creating not him. Let us forget for the sake of argument that God and free will cannot mix and see what happens if we assume they can and do.
They want to say that God made all things freely and of his own volition.
Why?
Because if God is not free then something better than him
is the reason why we are here. Our existence is really down to luck and a brute
fact.
Because you cannot say God lovingly called all things
into existence unless he has the power not to love.
Because you want to have a loving relationship with this
God and if you have free will you need to relate to a God who has it too.
Because if God is forced to create what else is he forced to do? Maybe he could throw us all into Hell for all we know!
Or let us put all that a different way to make it completely clear:
A God who has free will like ours, that is has the power to do good as much as to do evil or wrong, is necessary if:
ONE You want a role model - you need God to be a role model when he claims to be the most important person in your life. An unfree role model can help but a really free one is best. Children find good cartoon characters to be inspiring role models.
TWO If God is perfect he will want his babies to be good too but how can they be if he has no free will and they have?
THREE If God gives us free will for ourselves and not for the sake of love then he is evil.
FOUR And you need God to have free will if you want to see your existence and that of the universe as a gift from a loving God.
But God cannot have free will to do wrong if he is all-knowing and all-perfect. Thus this God harms us for he is not really relevant and not inspirational and could be dangerous though he cannot help it.
Anyway that aside, which one of the four is the most important or are they all equally important?
FOUR is the most important one for the Christian for creation by God is the foundational doctrine on which all the others is based.
THREE is what informed people would prefer for we all want to believe we should use our free will for love. That is more basic than having a role model for a role model is no good unless you have free will for the right reasons. It is more basic than needing to believe in a God who has free will and gives us the same power for we are made in his image. And we care more that we can love than if our existence is a gift.
If they are equally important then if you are forced to choose one you can choose any one. If you can then that undermines Christianity. It cannot be the one true faith if its main doctrine belongs on a menu.
Some think God can be a person who has no free will. Others think he is a person with free will. Others think he is not a person at all and so cannot have free will. Others say he has free will in a sense but not in the sense of being morally responsible. What if he is the kind of God can only choose things but cannot consider the rights and wrongs in terms of the cost to his creatures? He would not be evil as in deliberately evil. He is not to be condemned.
Considering only one option out of many says God has free
will in the loving and moral sense it is not very likely that he is a free
agent. There is no evidence that he is a free agent because God could be
What if God was forced to create? It would mean he is not really God for there is some power bigger than him even if it is within him and part of him. If there is such a power then why suppose there is a God or a god at all? God cannot have free will so God is nonsense.
Religion says God freely created all things. God not
having free will means God is not really the origin of all things.
Whatever forced him to act is better than him. It is the real creator.
Christians are all agreed that free will in God is
something we cannot explain or understand and that we cannot imagine what it is
like for God to be free. We don’t even understand it in ourselves so it is
infinitely harder to understand it in him. One wonders then by what right they
can say he is free at all for they have no evidence. They certainly cannot say
they can prove God as long as this will problem remains an unanswered question.
To say they have other reasons to believe in God and that he is free is mad for
the other things can prove nothing until we prove that God is or can be free
first. I mean they argue for example that though they cannot understand how God
can be free they will say he is free for he revealed the Bible and the Bible
says he is free. But what use is the Bible or any doctrine saying God is free
when we admit we cannot understand his freedom? What they are doing is like
saying that John enjoys himself though they do not know or understand what John
enjoying himself means.
God cannot have free will for it is believed that sin and
doing wrong are only what imperfect beings do and as God is perfect he will
never be able to do wrong. God should be a good example for us but how can he be
when he does not have free will like ours? If Jesus was an automaton that would
destroy any chance of him being a real good example. A God who is not an example
for us is only being sick if he gives us free will. It is an insult to all the
people we hurt of our own free will - if we really do have free will. It is an
insult to worship him! God is not free to give us free will to invite us to be
truly good!
If God is perfect and boundless good and there is no
other then evil is his total opposite. Believers water down evil and what it
means to argue that it can fit the existence of God. They say it fits because
man creates evil not God and God tolerates evil BECAUSE HE IS GOOD and not in
spite of his goodness. They argue that he is a tolerant God. But tolerance is a
necessary evil and not a great thing. A tolerant person will hate but control
that hate. We want a good God not one who is compelled to exercise a scary
goodness. Not all goodness is nice. It is strange to say that evil can fit God
and God cannot be that kind of evil. If God is right to let genocide happen then
why can't he be a God of genocide?
When you analyse God's freedom you see it is impossible for him to be really free. Yet the notion of God having free will is needed if you want to hold that God is creator. And it needs to be a kind of free will we can relate to but all you get is stuff about how God's free will is different to ours for he sees and knows all things and so cannot have to struggle with decisions which for us is what free will is all about. If God made us and revealed such nonsense then he does not truly respect us and thus has no right to boast that free will is his gift to us especially when its consequences are often so dire.
We conclude:
God cannot have free will or any responsibility. Therefore God did not make all things out of love. He is not a role model though many lie that he is. Even those who say God has free will cannot say he is an example for us for unlike us he does not have to weigh up x against z an test things and think things through for he knows right away what to do. A free will so unlike ours is irrelevant to us. Atheism likes to call the universe a brute fact. Creation is a brute fact even if there is a God. Love for God is a delusion.