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mindzer0 · 04-15-2007, 01:20 PM

Don't kno if this has already been brought up, but if not, i'll bring it up now.

There is a paradox in most religions that has bugged me for most of my life and it is simply this: How can any religion that claims to have some all powerful being watching over and directing them, claim to have free will here on earth if that being didn't ask them if they even wanted to exist in the first place???

Yes they may have gained 'free will' after they were created, left or right, good or bad....paper or plastic, but the most important choice they could have made in regards to their life was taken away from. I personally don't see how one can say they have free will when it only works up to a certain point. To me, free will is only 'free' when it is complete and unrestrained..... but thats just me.

Thoughts?

AAMM77 · 04-15-2007, 02:27 PM

Congratulations

, you answered your own question; it is indeed a paradox. And it is a paradox because God had nothing to do with it. It was our own ill-informed decision all along. It is like the story of the Prodigal Son. This universe is/was an ill-informed choice to seemingly leave home (God, Oneness) and try to dualistically live separate from our source, which is in truth possible only in fictitious dreams. And that is what Christianity would be all about if people didn’t love the old testament so much. The more we try to justify this world and make it real, the more paradoxical it all becomes. There are plenty of paradoxes in the sciences just as there are in religions. Paradoxes are a sign of a bad or incomplete theory.

torilink · 04-15-2007, 08:13 PM

AAMM77 - I agree with your response!

I don't think it is a "Clinging" to the Old Testament so much as clinging to interpreting both Old and New Testament LITERALLY -

autumn · 04-16-2007, 01:38 AM

My 'religion', so to speak, Bhaki-Yoga (the yoga of devotion, the theistic branch) says that there was never a time that we didn't exist as individual souls (especially according to the Bhagavad-Gita ~ The Song Of God). Along with God who is also an individual personality.

Anyway it's not necessarily that we were created by Him (& there is a She too). It might be hard to grasp, it's waaaaay too inconceivable with what we have available to us here, to understand these things. But it's said that it is an eternal existance & relationship with God, that we never loose.

Now we did choose to be here on earth or in this realm, more seemingly seperate from God, but only 10 percent of all the souls that exist chose that.

04-15-2007, 01:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
mindzer0 Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 3	Free wil paradox in religion Don't kno if this has already been brought up, but if not, i'll bring it up now. There is a paradox in most religions that has bugged me for most of my life and it is simply this: How can any religion that claims to have some all powerful being watching over and directing them, claim to have free will here on earth if that being didn't ask them if they even wanted to exist in the first place??? Yes they may have gained 'free will' after they were created, left or right, good or bad....paper or plastic, but the most important choice they could have made in regards to their life was taken away from. I personally don't see how one can say they have free will when it only works up to a certain point. To me, free will is only 'free' when it is complete and unrestrained..... but thats just me. Thoughts?

04-15-2007, 02:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
AAMM77 Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: S. Florida Posts: 20	Free-Will is overrated Congratulations , you answered your own question; it is indeed a paradox. And it is a paradox because God had nothing to do with it. It was our own ill-informed decision all along. It is like the story of the Prodigal Son. This universe is/was an ill-informed choice to seemingly leave home (God, Oneness) and try to dualistically live separate from our source, which is in truth possible only in fictitious dreams. And that is what Christianity would be all about if people didn’t love the old testament so much. The more we try to justify this world and make it real, the more paradoxical it all becomes. There are plenty of paradoxes in the sciences just as there are in religions. Paradoxes are a sign of a bad or incomplete theory.

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04-15-2007, 08:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
torilink Family Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 1,123	AAMM77 - I agree with your response! I don't think it is a "Clinging" to the Old Testament so much as clinging to interpreting both Old and New Testament LITERALLY -

04-16-2007, 01:38 AM	#4 (permalink)
autumn Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado Posts: 35	My 'religion', so to speak, Bhaki-Yoga (the yoga of devotion, the theistic branch) says that there was never a time that we didn't exist as individual souls (especially according to the Bhagavad-Gita ~ The Song Of God). Along with God who is also an individual personality. Anyway it's not necessarily that we were created by Him (& there is a She too). It might be hard to grasp, it's waaaaay too inconceivable with what we have available to us here, to understand these things. But it's said that it is an eternal existance & relationship with God, that we never loose. Now we did choose to be here on earth or in this realm, more seemingly seperate from God, but only 10 percent of all the souls that exist chose that.

Personal Development for Smart PeopleTM Forums

Personal Development for Smart People^TM Forums