Board index ‹ Free Will

[I am who says it]

I'm an atheist and I've always heard the "People who believe and accept god will go to heaven" (I get that this won't be everyone's belief). If you get punished by being sent to hell if we don't believe in his existence, why does he give us free will in that regard? Cant he just instil it in our minds that he exists?

[jimwalton]

It's not free will if he forces your choice. It's like me taking you to an ice cream store and saying, "You can have any flavor you want as long as it's vanilla." You seem to want God to give you free will as long as he forces you to choose him by instilling it in your mind. I'll assume you're an intelligent person. Therefore, you are able to use your reason to examine all evidence objectively and infer the most reasonable conclusion. Consequently, if you choose against God you choose your own eternal fate as being separated from the God you choose against, want nothing to do with (as an atheist) and don't believe in. God isn't sending you to hell. You have used your free will to walk there.

I feel, though, that you haven't expressed the real heart of your question and that I haven't touched on the real issue with you, so feel free to continue the dialogue.

[I am who says it]

Thank you. But I don't want god to take away my free will, it's a question on why he doesn't in that specific way.

I don't believe in god, but that thought always puzzled me.

[jimwalton]

Alvin Plantinga says, "A world containing free creatures who freely perform both good and evil actions—and do more good than evil—is more valuable than a world containing quasi automata who always do what is right because they are unable to do otherwise. God can create free creatures, but He cannot causally or otherwise determine them to do only what is right; for if He does so then they do not do what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; but He cannot create the possibility of moral evil and at the same time prohibit its actuality. And as it turned out, some of the free creatures God created exercised their freedom to do what is wrong: hence moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes err, however, in no way tells against God’s omnipotence or against His goodness; for He could forestall the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good."