...but I just don`t know.


COULD`VE, being the operative word.

Certainly God COULD change reality, or take away suffering, or make life a patch of roses, making anything that causes discomfort simply not exist.

BUT, he doesn`t, so we deal with it. (hopefully)

Why doesn`t he, though? This is a question to be asked. If he is all-powerful, why doesn`t he govern reality more strictly, keeping "bad" things from happening?

Simple, really. Again free will comes into play. IF God had intended to fully control this world, free will would never have been introduced into the equation. Without free will our every move would be controlled or at least pre-determined by God. Kind of like a person playing Populous (a great game, by the way). Thing`s are going to get fairly complex from here on, so I`m going to try to keep it as simple as I can, ok?

Free will is the ability to make choices. Each choice brings you to a new set of choices, and so on. God, being outside of time, can see the end before it happens. You`ll notice I underlined that. If God sees it before it occurs, then (reduntant) the action hasn`t occured yet.

With me so far? Good.

OK, so God can see what happens before it happens. Then it`s up to God to decide weither or not to warn us or control us in our decisions. Why then doesn`t he? Because he gave us choice at the very beginning of the soul. IF he interveined at every instance that we would make a grave error, then we would not truly be making our own choices.

• Hitler did not have the free choice in being born - tenacious - October 10, 2000 - 22:23 UTC
  • RE: Hitler did not have the free choice in being born - Andy™ - October 11, 2000 - 19:46 UTC
    • Awww crud! (continuation here!) - Andy™ - October 11, 2000 - 20:13 UTC
      • No worries :) - tenacious - October 14, 2000 - 19:13 UTC
        • lessee if I can get it all in one post this time... - Andy™ - October 16, 2000 - 21:41 UTC
          • Digressions galore - tenacious - October 17, 2000 - 20:29 UTC
          • RE: lessee if I can get it all in one post this time... - tenacious - October 17, 2000 - 20:36 UTC