Welcome to The Cave of Dragonflies forums, where the smallest bugs live alongside the strongest dragons.
Guests are not able to post messages or even read certain areas of the forums. Now, that's boring, don't you think? Registration, on the other hand, is simple, completely free of charge, and does not require you to give out any personal information at all. As soon as you register, you can take part in some of the happy fun things at the forums such as posting messages, voting in polls, sending private messages to people and being told that this is where we drink tea and eat cod.
Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?
Why would he do that though? God is omniscient; surely he knows that with great power comes great responsibility! Saying that he "respects our decision" is just a prettier way of saying that he could make things better but doesn't (presumably because he doesn't exist). Don't try to pull the "free will" card - the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being is not compatible with that of free will in any way. And besides, what about natural disasters? And why would he send people to Hell?
Sounds a bit like God.
You still haven't explained the existence of Hell, or of things that are beyond the control of us humans (natural disasters, accidents, diseases)...
So basically, some of us are just doomed to go to Hell from the day we're born? I mean, God already knows we're on our way down, but he's not gonna change anything, is he?
Personally I'd argue that they don't anyway, but that's beside the point. In any case - how is he "respecting us" by sending us to Hell?
If God has the power to make everyone happy, then as an omnibenevolent god, he should. I'd much rather he forced happiness down our throats than eternal suffering. Admittedly I've yet to read the book, but I'm fairly sure the totalitarian government in 1984 didn't actually have complete power to make people happy, and certainly didn't always try to...
Fair enough. I've always thought of God as non-existent. The only problem with this theory is that - oh, right.
Why would God create an imperfect world? Once again, pointless cruelty.
Even disregarding the fact that I don't think free will is compatible with God as we know him - what makes you think free will has any inherent value? What is the good thing about letting people make horrible mistakes? I, for one, would count myself blessed if I could only make the right decisions.
... Of course he is.
And why would that be? Because the rich minority of Rome decided to swallow it down becuase it was much too powerful for them to keep the opression on. From there, it was shoved down the throats of every new generation. To the point it pretty much ruled the medieval world.
If I may, a slight addition: if free will is a good thing, a perfect world would be able to have that along with not having it cause the serious consequences it does. Maybe it's hard for us to think about how a world can be both of free will and free of evil -- but wasn't your God ominpotent, omniscient and benevolent, again? Besides, if we are a creation of God, I'd hardly think he'd make us capable of evil. I mean, sending people to Hell would equal to teaching a dog how to attack a postman, then put it down because it attacked a postman.
