Gemma Therese

Dear Automaton,

Your wrote,

"Obviously [God did not create us to know Him], becuase He created brains with the logical capacity to reach the conclusion that He does not exist. If God made us to know Him, then there would not be unbelievers. There are unbelievers. Therefore, God did not make us to know Him (or does not exist)."

I respond:

Ultimately, the only absolute freedom we have resides in our free will. And that freedom was given to us by our Creator, essentially, so that we might freely choose to love and serve Him. All other creatures serve Him out of exigency; by their very being and existence they witness to His power and His love, or reflect His glory and beauty in some way. Only to man has He given the power of freely choosing to love and serve Him. He has given us intellect and free will -- and this is the hallmark of man.

Only man can freely choose not to serve his Creator.

You see, Automaton, God loved us enough to give us the option of believing. Love and service when we do not have a choice is not genuine love and service.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese

DRFseven

I am so tired of this stupid argument! "God gave us free will so blah, blah, blah." Well, seeing that we don't friggin' HAVE free will, where does that leave your argument?

People DO NOT choose whether to believe or not. It APPEARS to people that a god exists or not; they don't "decide" it. If I were to decide right now to believe in God, what would that mean? Nothing! Nothing would happen at all and I wouldn't end up believing in God because it doesn't seem to me that there IS one. Unless it begins to seem to me that there IS a God, I have NO WAY to believe such a thing because I can't make it seem true.

Philosoft

"God loved us enough to give us the option of believing"

vs.

"God loved us enough to give us the option of going to hell"

What's the difference between those statements?

Gemma Therese

DRFSeven,

Do you want to believe in God?

Gemma Therese

"God loved us enough to give us the option of believing"

vs.

"God loved us enough to give us the option of going to hell"

What's the difference between those statements?

-*-*-*-*-

There is no real difference. God never "sends" anyone to hell.

Remember -- hell is separation from God. We have the option of being with Him for eternity -- or not.

In God's Love,

Gemma Therese

Philosoft

I'm sure someday someone will tell me how this makes sense.

<strong> How is this different from where I'm at now?

Liquidrage

Someone confusing philosphy with dogma again?

DRFseven

Sure; it was fun. I tried desperately to maintain the belief after it started seeming untrue, but nothing worked.

It was like once, when I was twelve, I wanted a certain Barbie for Christmas; the one with the bouffant hair, long, slinky black dress, and the elbow-length gloves (that's right; I'm old). She was so beautiful! But after I got her a very strange thing happened; I was suddenly unable to successfully play with Barbie dolls anymore. I'd try; I'd get the Ken doll and put him and Barbie in her Corvette and just sit there and wait for that feeling of pretend to come over me, but it just wouldn't happen, even when I drove them into the closet to make out. In fact, NO pretend worked anymore. It was horrible! I couldn't be Tarzan or Jane outside on the swingset, I couldn't be a brave cowgirl who'd been shot off her horse; dammit, nothing worked, it was just no use.

So, do you think I could somehow just "decide" to believe in God again?

Synaesthesia

DRFseven
"The feeling of pretend" That is exactly what I lost when my guardian angle stopped talking back.

h

Gemma,
Would you please cite a source from scripture that describes hell as "seperation from God". I would love to see it!