Does God have free will?

[edhopper]

According to Christianity, God gave man free will so he could choose between good and evil.
We are told God allows Evil to exists only because man has free will.
But if God is all good and perfect, he can't decide to do something evil, his motive can only be good, no matter what the he does or allows to happen.
So if God can never choose to be be evil, he doesn't have free will, by his own definition.

[johnnyplankton]

1. How stoned are you?

Can I have some?

[calimary]

2. LOL!

[edhopper]

6. I wish

maybe this God stuff would make more sense then.

[LongtimeAZDem]

13. It's not a new question; the presumption of omniptence is problematic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox

[Major Nikon]

3. That sounds like something Satan would say

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

4. I was taught that god is ...

Omnipotent... so he can be the ultimate evil or the ultimate good whichever he chooses at the time.
Use of free will. Also you cannot give something away you never possessed in the first place, hence ...free will.
Glad I’m atheist is a lot less mentally challenging not that that thought took much thinking.

[Fullduplexxx]

5. It's funny watching people wrestle with these types of questions

"But if God is all good and perfect, he can't decide to do something evil, his motive can only be good, no matter what the he does or allows to happen. "


Evil from your perspective or from god's? God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. Was that evil ? To some yes to some no, to god? Who's to say.

Good motive ? To a hungry hunter hunger is a good motive for the hunting but not to the hunted.

[edhopper]

7. Doesn't matter

If God can only be good, then he cannot choose to be evil. And the definition of evil is God's. People who use their free will to do evil often don't know what they do is evil. Ask any christian.
If I don't think taking the lords name in vain, I have still sinned if I do.

[Fullduplexxx]

9. Is murder evil?

[edhopper]

10. according to me

or God?

[Fullduplexxx]

12. Do they differ?

[LongtimeAZDem]

15. Not according to the god, if we postulate omniscience and omnipotence

If a god is all-knowing and all-powerful, then everything that occurs in it's creation is by deliberate design.

Therefore, if murder exists, the god is OK with it.

[edhopper]

17. When I read the Bible

yes, they do.

[Lordquinton]

18. We're created in his image

so that would presuppose that we have the same ideas.

[edhopper]

19. But we can choose evil

and God, by the his very definition, cannot.

Many people have different ideas than God. Many in the Bible think differently.

[Lordquinton]

22. That's why we have the mysterious ways loophole

God cannot do evil, therefore what he did isn't evil, we just don't know his motivation.

[edhopper]

23. but his motivation is always good

there for he has no free will. QED.

[Lordquinton]

25. I'm sure glad I'm not taking that position

You have to create loopholes for your loopholes

[irresistable]

26. the only evil is to oppose God....God cannot oppose him/herself, but still has free will.

[malchickiwick]

8. Can God create a burrito that is too hot for God to eat?

Answer: God, being self-negating, does not exist.
(Update on the immovable rock paradox)

[Voltaire2]

20. God's wind!

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. No, he has to pay for it!

[LakeArenal]

14. "God" is holding a 2100 year grudge against a woman that ate piece of fruit.

That’s “his” choice.

[Voltaire2]

21. Isn't more like 4000 years?

That is OT grudge.

Yaweh rev 2.0 got some woman pregnant and then had his son killed to prove something or other.

[Duppers]

16. "God" must just be a sadist

Playing a game with us for his own amusement - if one follows the logic of all this religion.
Otherwise, he would've created things differently.

"Does God have free will?"

Do we?

[guillaumeb]

24. The Creator is described as omnipotent.

And the Creator has free will.

[lordsummerisle]

27. God created man in his own image

...and man returned the compliment.

[Turbineguy]

28. God does what he's told.

That's what evangelicals seem to believe.

[dubyadiprecession]

29. All i know is that he likes to watch....

..and that by itself, is creepy.

[enki23]

30. Christians (and their type) have been LOLing at that one from long before there were Christians.

But never once have they successfully answered it. In the end it's all just jazz hands and cutesy, obfuscationist bullshit like "God and goodness are one!" And "how about those Patriots?"

Anyway, the older Christians thought omnipotence only meant something if their god was free to do whatever it wanted. No, that doesn't solve the dilemma. But it means they were stuck with one horn, and they had to make that one work. They figured that the power to do only what you must do, nothing more, nothing less, means you don't really "do" anything at all. Which makes sense, because that god isn't so much like a perfect person as like a perfect bit of plumbing. All the water gets where it has to go, with never an errant drop. Praise him.

[pamdb]

31. Free will

What makes you think there even IS a god?

[edhopper]

32. The premise

starts on the first line. If-then.