| Back to God - Home Atheism About Me The Bible Jesus Islam The Wall Evolution Polls News Quotes Humor Hate Mail Nice Mail Contact Fa.v Links Webrings FAQ Misc. |
| Does Free Will Vindicate God (Yahweh)? Often when arguing with a Christian that the Bible-God is ultimately responsible, and to blame, for "evil" (though evil is a theistic invention, I'll use it here) and suffering in the world, the desperate Christian will try to turn the blame on man. Free Will, says the Christian, allowed perfect man to fall from Grace. I must say . . . I disagree. I’m going to attempt to defend my position: providing the Judeo-Christian god is real and humans have free will, this does not rescue Yahweh from the onus of evil and corruption. I’ll attack the assertion that God is vindicated by the free will of man on two fronts: Yahweh could have, and should have, created a species of humans that would not have sinned; and that regardless of all other things, humans could not have possibly been created in a state that a “fall from Grace” was avoidable. Thus, the blame is Yahweh’s. To avoid having a species of mindless robots, Yahweh provided man with Free Will. Of course, Yahweh knew that this free will would ultimately allow man to fall into sin, causing not only the death of the people who committed the crime, but billions who had nothing to do with it who were to follow. This alone might cause one to question the omnibenevolence often attributed to the Christian notion of Yahweh. However, that is a whole other article in itself. Yahweh did this, we are told, because, he loves us so much. I can’t help asking the obvious; things begin to sound silly at this point. The Christian god assured the death of every human and an eternity in hell for most, because he didn’t want to create us with an instinctive desire to do his will? Speaking of what Yahweh wants, this god is supposed to be omnipotent--that is, it has limitless power. Is Yahweh not powerful enough to create a human that is able to both have free will, and also be forever loyal to the Creator? This is GOD, of course he can! Further, because Yahweh loves us, wants the best for us, one would think that his very love for us would make him want to create a species that would enjoy its gift of life, rather than have to spend it suffering and in the end dying. The Christians tell us that their god is: Omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing). With those characteristics, the only way humanity could have failed to meet the standards of Yahweh, is if Yahweh willed it. I’m saying that the Christian God must have wanted man to “fall from Grace.” How can I say such a thing? I’ll explain. Yahweh can do all things; he is omnipotent. Because of this the ability for the Christian god to create a species of man that would both have free will and the ability to avoid sin. (I will discuss the ability to avoid sin later, if a flag just went up saying, “but man DID have the ability--he acted against it.”) The Christian god is omniscient, not only does this god have the ability to create a man that can have free will and still avoid sin, this god knows how to do it. Yahweh had both the ability and the know-how to create a species of man that would have free will and never sin. Ever. I’ll ignore the fact that Yahweh chose to send a tempter to planet earth, when there are countless stars in this vast universe and we know that some of them have planets. Why not another planet? There is only one place left to turn, Yahweh wanted things to turn out they way they did. Yahweh created a man that was unable to have free will and also remain forever loyal, god chose to send a tempter into the world with innocent people who never had the experience of someone lying to them. They were trusting . . . innocent. To go a step further, why did the Christian god have to put that blasted Tree of Knowledge on the planet in the first place? He wanted to, that’s why. Now, about that ability to avoid sin. There is one way and one way only that humans could have ever had the ability to avoid sinning. Humans would have had to have been created perfectly. Human perfection was a must because sinless ness cannot be maintained by an imperfect sentient organism. If, for some reason it is found that Yahweh did not or could not have created humans perfectly, the responsibility of the first sin falls upon him not humans. Dear reader, it is not possible that humans were created perfect. How can I be so bold to make such an assertion? Simple: perfection does not perform imperfection. If something is truly one hundred percent perfect (anything less would be imperfect) it cannot produce negativity. If Yahweh created humans perfect, even with free will, a sinning would not have been an option to Adam nor Eve. The very nature of their perfection would not allow them, as perfection cannot perform an imperfect act. Perfection must be perfect. Anything less is not perfect. I know I’m being redundant, but it is something that really must be understood. The only one way that humans would have sinned is if they were created imperfect from the start. Again, a deliberate choice from the Christian god. Conclusion: There is no escaping the blame for suffering and evil in the world. The only excuse left is to say that there is an ultimate “plan” and, indeed, this has been a prominent excuse right along with free will for centuries. This “plan” however, is nothing more than an admission that Yahweh “planned” on suffering, death, and the eternal damnation of billions. |