My mind ran away last Sunday morning, again, while trying NOT to listen to the priest during his weekly rambling-paraphrasing-scolding which may take all of 20 minutes during mass. And my thoughts were revolving around free will.
The concept of free will is very dear to us and I have already written about it here in regards to religion. This Sunday morning, my musings were a little deeper: I am convinced that, as many of my atheist friends contend, an omniscient all-powerful and benevolent God is fully incompatible with human free will.
Consider this: I am free to "sin" or not to "sin". God has no power over my free will (or chooses not to exert it? not really clear). So, leaving aside that probable breach of God's all-mightiness, God allows me to sin all I want.
However, this presents me with two conclusions that are incompatible with all of God's usual attributes. If I am "free to sin" and God will not interfere with my choices either a) he is not omniscient and did not know I would sin or b) he is not benevolent at all, since he knows I will sind and be condemned but did not create me in such a I way that I would choose not to sin.
This is the kind of internal logical inconsistencies religious dogmas are full of. Maybe I am too simplistic but I just don't buy these illogical beliefs.
I would love to hear a religious apologist try to refute my argument. My feeling is that they would choose the cheap and easy way out: God's purposes are beyond human comprehension.
And that may be true for I do not understand. I am only human.
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2 comments:
I see your point, and I agree that many people may use the argument that we are human, and will never fully comprehend God's will. Still I'm sure that people have thought about this before and have some further insight as to how the idea of God being benevolent and omniscient can work together seamlessly.
Reading something from Epicure, the gods have no interest in dealing with humans matters. Then, the free will is only a human matter limited by our own responsibility or the consequences of our actions or the certainty of punishment from the law application. But the religious leaders would like to be the referees of punish or reward in order to control the "God´s will"
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