IF GOD IS BEHIND MY FREE WILL THEN THERE ARE TWO CHOOSERS SO IF I MURDER HE MURDERS MORE
Religion blames us not God for evil for God is said to be all-good and
all-powerful. It says he gave us the gift of free will and we abused it. This
idea supposes that God gave us the power to go against him. But the
doctrine that God creates all says that we do not create our choices - he does!
We supposedly use free will to sin because of God not in spite of him.
Free will is essentially about making a choice in the present time and making it
about choosing an aspect of the future. God knows the future. So we are told
that if he knows the future he cannot change it and so cannot have free will.
That argument forgets knowing what is going to happen has nothing to do with
causing it. In fact the person who does not know the future is the one who does
not have much freedom to choose. We all make guess choices rather than real
ones. To say free will is worth it is unfeeling and silly for how could a guess
be worth all the trouble? Is it worth having free will so that you might love
with it when in fact there is more guessing involved than productive love? It
makes an idol of good intentions where the suffering of others is just something
to be exploited to have a good intention over. We do not choose our wants which
is another limitation. A man cannot choose to be a dog for he does not
want to be. Everybody makes the best choice they can think of so thinking limits
free will. You are not free if you choose x not seeing it clearly. That is not a
choice in any significant sense. If x is about morality that it’s not a moral
responsible choice in any significant sense. If you don’t have free will as some
say one thing is for sure. You virtually don’t have free will.
Free will is presented as only working in a framework that you do not cause. God then is a collaborator with your sins if you can sin.
If God tells you it is your choice to sin and you attempt but the end result is not your choice then the murder you commit is really all him.
And he is evil for blaming you and punishing you.
Belief in God would be inherently immoral even if the
worshippers do not see it. They should be looking so they need a
reprimand.
The existence of free will can be undeniably refuted. To be responsible for an
action, I have to know what I am doing the very moment I am doing it. But I can
only concentrate on one thing at a time. The moment I will something it is one
thought in my mind that makes me do it. I am not conscious of my motives so I do
not know what I am doing. I cannot be responsible for what I do therefore
determinism is true.
Everyone who has examined their conscience is aware of this truth that there is
no free will because that job requires examination of whether or not you were
conscious of what you were doing the moment you acted badly. Those who
contradict the determinist need to learn about right and wrong.
Free will is one hundred percent disproved. There is no question about it.
Read the proofs against free will and about how dangerous a doctrine it is in my
other pages.
People think God gave us selfish genes and is to blame
for our social problems. Genes are called selfish. They just
replicate themselves in ways that look selfish. They are not selfish anymore
than sand is selfish for making it to the sea shore while other sand does not.
It is just mechanical physical competition. But if a being is responsible
for how they are then he is selfish for causing such behaviour.
Some argue, "God makes and causes all that makes us free therefore God causes
our decisions so they are really his decisions." But it is possible to imagine
God creating something that behaves freely and only if you assume that freedom
is a concept that makes sense. He gives it all it has including the power to be
free but he does not make its decisions for it. He is creating the choice but he
is not making it. Suppose there were no God and there was just matter would it
follow from the fact that we are material beings that if we are free that matter
makes the choices? No way. So there is no problem with God making us free if
freedom is possible.
The objection has value of a different kind. For us to be free God must let us
go. He has to withhold his omnipotence. He gives us the power to create the
choice from nothing. This is open to the same absurdity there is as having God
make things from nothing. God is supposed to be infinite in power when he can
bring something out of nothing for the distance between something and nothing is
endless. So there is no power outside God. But yet the universe is not made from
God or his power so we must ask what God had to do with producing it. If it is
not made of anything then there is power outside God which contradicts his
alleged infinity. And if we can create from nothing every one of us is as much a
God as God which is also absurd and we are that powerful then surely we could
have created all things.
It is certain that God cannot program us to do what is good of our own free
will. That would be forcing us to be good. All he can do is put us in an
environment in which we will be reluctant to do evil because of our free will.
For example, he could stop us thinking of the things that are likely to lead us
to sin. He accepts the good works we do without thinking of sin and without
remembering it exists as meritorious so he can reward us if we don't think of
sin at all.
God rapes when a man rapes. We do evil because of God more than ourselves. Some
would say we do evil solely because God decides we must.
A choice is not just a choice but a reaction. You need have loads of opportunities to choose from. To choose bread when there is nothing else there is not choosing at all. It is reacting. It still feels like a choice which is what we mean when we say we had to choose it under the circumstances. But it is not really one and proves that feeling free or that you have made a choice has nothing to do with making a real choice. To choose bread or cake when there is nothing else is reacting but is also choosing. The less options you face and are aware of the more your choice is not choice but reacting. Reacting is not a choice. So God is a partner in our evil if he gives us any free will. As creator he is more than partner but far more responsible for our evil than we are.