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Re: Free Will » Flipsactown

Posted by wvClifton on June 11, 2004, at 13:43:52

In reply to Free Will, posted by Flipsactown on April 14, 2004, at 11:43:05

some theologians hold that God cannot do anything inconsistent with himself, for instance, he cannot lie (on account of His moral perfection). so He cannot say one thing and do another.

in giving humans free will (so the story goes), it had to be what it was, just that: free will. and being free meant that evil had to be a possibility. if God were to subsequently intervene, then humans could no longer be said to have freewill. in the words of one theologian i read, God has "forever forsworn the use of police power."

i myself think this has something to do with human consciousness--that if there were not good and evil, dialetical opposites which are probably ontologically necessary to each other, then consciousness probably wouldn't be possible. Jung hints at this in his writings. (if you're interested in reading it, let me know and i'll look it up for you.)

but that's niether here nor there. i wanted also to share that some theological thinking makes a distinction between what's called the "permissive will of God" vs. "God's perfect will" for each individual. under the permissive will of God, all sorts of evil shit can happen and God will not prevent it, if that's what we choose. but God's perfect will would be our ultimate good, presumably the fulfillment of all the potentials He has given us.


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poster:wvClifton thread:336288
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20040408/msgs/355782.html