Problem of free will, my solution
A universally held belief by Christians, is that the events set into motion by the Bible are a result of humans having free will. To them free will gives you a "choice" in the matter of believing in god or not, and therefore makes Christianity "fair". It also makes you responsible for not believing....with eternal punishment. All of us are smart enough to know that the scenario laid out in the bible with original sin, Jesus' sacrifice etc etc, is fair to NONE of the parties involved. So in my limited human knowledge I came up with a solution using elements of the bible that "work" (really nothing works so I'll just use neutral concepts such as the Jews being the chosen people) fused with ideas of mine to make a uetopia that includes free will.
Imagine God making the garden of Eden and on the west side of the garden he adds his main, headquarters. It's the most majestic building the world has ever seen. People looking at it from the ground can't see the top, hell even people in the air can't see the top of it. It's foundation is actually floating off of the ground. Whenever god wants to say some shit to his creation he'll come out in one of his many PHYSICAL VISIBLE incarnations. Each incarnation will of course be able to fly and mystify humans with the impossiblity of what it's doing. Displaying impossible acts is the most important to show humans that this being is greater than you.
And before the first humans are even put on the world, they go through god HQ first to be briefed, they are briefed in a room simulated to look and feel like heaven. He tells them "sup son or daughter of mine...I am GOD, and this is what heaven is like. Like how it feels like a constant 24 orgasm? Like how it smells like chocolate cake and happiness? Well good, You're about to go to Earth. You're free to do whatever you WANT there. But I have a set of rules that I believe would lead to your best possible life...and I REALLY think you should follow them. If you do you can get back here, but if turn away from me and don't tell me sorry in person before you die (god will randomly be walking around in the streets talking to and listening to people's problems) you're gonna go to a bad place. I don't really want you to but that's the only way to be fair. The good humans get up here with me."
So you go to Earth armed with ALL the knowledge you need to know about god and you can also randomly see him amongst you, or you can actually call on his name and he'll come talk to you. Now you can live life how god wants or if you don't...maybe he'll stop coming around giving you back massages with happy endings. But you see where I'm taking this. You can see god, you know who made the rules and he's actually there to talk and mentor to you. However, he does NOT interfere with your ability to do wrong. But you are always offered the chance when you talk to god to tell him sorry and he forgets it ever happened. So people are free to choose and in this scenario, those that want to go againt the guy floating around in the streets in fire or as a puddle of water, would deserve to go to hell for their stupidity.
I came up with that scenario in about 10 minutes. I would think that if there was an omniscient omnipotent god, that he could come up with a plan like this or better within a fraction of a nanosecond. But no, his plan...well it sucked. If god's real (he's not) then I'm smarter than he is...
The more you know about the world around you, the less you have to make up.
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Too bad you weren't around 6000 years ago. You'd have been a much better god, I think.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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That's a really rational explanation, IntellectualTitan.
It would make sense, if there were a god, that we'd be briefed of the actual rules before coming here. Not to mention, the rules wouldn't change from time to time.
Great post!
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If any god wants me as a follower they'll have to come and ask me in person, or at least prove their existance somehow.
I agree that this makes much more sense, but (to play the devil's advocate for a second) it does away completely with the concept of faith, which is required in Abrahamic religion. Most fundies will tell you no faith = no heaven. So something else would have to happen to make you need faith; something like (I think) Buddhism's broth of oblivion.
It's amazing to watch the contortions people will go through to try to accomodate new information into an existing (bad) model. My favourite example has to be the Ptolemaic model of the universe, which has planets actually going BACKWARDS to account for retrograde motion/parallax.
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I was speaking with a gentleman the other night, and he started on free-will with "open theology". Anybody know about this? Theists trying to skirt the problem of evil by redefining the nature of their god. I guess if you can't win the argument, just make something else up.
The paper read yesterday, the earth exploded, nobody noticed the passing of this hapless planet.