Linda, First of all, thank you very much for taki...

2009-10-26T19:11:11.633-04:00

Linda,

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to reply; it is much appreciated. I love to hear from visitors.

Now when you say that God could have set the world up so that we are incapable of doing evil, that implies that we are given free will *to an extent*. We are therefore, given free will up until the point that we are doing something against the Will of God (for the Will of God is always good). Then, the word "free" in this modified "free will" is rendered useless. We are not truly "free" to do anything then, are we?

Realize also that God did not create evil. Evil is wholly attributed to man's decisions. Evil is the absence of God (the absence of good). If he made it so that evil did not exist, then he would have had to make it so that we have no choice but to do everything that God commands and that God wills. This is not free will and by this limitation it is impossible to truly love. We are at that point constricted to the "rails" that God creates for us and are on a predetermined path to "love" God. "Love" being there in quotes because it is, of course, not true love. We are then indeed robots because to not love God is to do evil and to love God is to express our true love by practicing our God-given free will in a manner pleasing to him.

I encourage you to listen to these two amazing sermons on this very topic; both of which will help explain the Coptic Orthodox perspective on this topic ten times better than I ever could:

http://orthodoxsermons.org/sermons/do-all-things-really-work-together-good

http://orthodoxsermons.org/sermons/problem-evil-and-suffering

I hope to hear from you soon!

In Christ,
Jeremy

My problem with the free will argument is that it ...

2009-10-07T15:21:21.016-04:00

My problem with the free will argument is that it assumes that in order for there to be good things, there must be bad things. Is that really so? We think it's so because that's what we have told ourselves. But God created everything, right? And He could set the world up in any way he chose. He could have set it up that humans are incapable of doing evil things. He could have set it up so that evil things do not even EXIST. That would not make us robots because we still have the choice to love God or not. What is the point of children and babies being molested, starved, beaten, abused, etc. If humans were made incapable of doing such things to children, how would that be turning us into robots?

According to the Bible and most Christians, God can intervene and help people, save people, etc. So when a 5 month old baby is raped, where was God? What did the baby do to deserve that? Original Sin? Why would God set it up like that when he didn't have to? I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself very well.

I just feel that one of these 3 things must be true: God is loving but not all-powerful, and that's why the baby is raped; God is all-powerful, but He doesn't care and is unfair, and that's why the baby is raped; or there is no God.

Comments on Christnology: Answering a Deist: Why do bad things happen to goo...

Linda, First of all, thank you very much for taki...

My problem with the free will argument is that it ...