Can We Really Exercise Free Will?

[LifelongLearner]

Would you mind posting it again or posting the post#?

I would, there are several such comments from me recently. I'm sick of the shenanigans on my post, sorry if you're not involved but you are just as capable of searching through comments yourself.

Blame the trolls for spamming my post, they have no interest in actual discussion.

Edit: Realised you might be genuine, so sorry but i'm sick n tired of the spite and malice from the disingenuous.

 

[ChristRoseFromTheDead]

I'm not wandering through 75 pages to find it. Thanks for your Christian love.

 

[LifelongLearner]

I'm not wandering through 75 pages to find it. Thanks for your Christian love.

Apologies again, i was searching through my comments pages to find one, this is one from yesterday:
https://christianchat.com/threads/can-we-really-exercise-free-will.218061/post-5526148

Certainly appreciate you not wanting to search through many pages, ditto me and i have to put up with trolling attacks to hide my comments too.

 

[ChristRoseFromTheDead]

Apologies again, i was searching through my comments pages to find one, this is one from yesterday:
https://christianchat.com/threads/can-we-really-exercise-free-will.218061/post-5526148

Certainly appreciate you not wanting to search through many pages, ditto me and i have to put up with trolling attacks to hide my comments too.

Thanks. You didn't really define free will in that post; no one does, but everyone seems to have an opinion on it. The person you responded to in that post makes the distinction that I have made in the past that a person's will and their ability to actualize that will are two very different things. Some people conflate the two, which makes a meaningful discussion on free will frustrating and unedifying

 

[GWH]

Are you silly enough to suggest i don't already know that? i've posted many comments mentioning how God literally pleads with people to turn from evil doing so he won't have to destroy them. Think it's likely there is a small elect group who are more precious to him, which is fair enough but his grace and mercy has a much wider, if less privileged application too.

As i've said previously, i'd rather have the lowest seat in heaven, than the top seat in hell. Why am i not surprised you and your fellow trolls are crawling out of your sewers to disrupt discussion on MY post again? You don't get sympathy from me for yours attracting less interest.

What does your rant have to do with the truth I posted?

 

[LifelongLearner]

What does your rant have to do with the truth I posted?

Truth and you aren't even on nodding terms, let alone acquaintances. You're a troll.

 

[LifelongLearner]

Thanks. You didn't really define free will in that post; no one does, but everyone seems to have an opinion on it. The person you responded to in that post makes the distinction that I have made in the past that a person's will and their ability to actualize that will are two very different things. Some people conflate the two, which makes a meaningful discussion on free will frustrating and unedifying

Agree, it just gave a general idea of my opinion on it. I think we definitely have will, an irate toddler denied something they really want offers a reasonable indication it's real and we can certainly make choices too.

It's just free will i don't think we have, which seems logical when living in a planet with 8 billion people. Our choices and will are often in conflict with the wishes and needs of other, so exercising our will is often constrained. Which seems logical and reasonable to me, i'd say we're more scratch each others backists, don't see why some seem to see that as shameful.

 

[GWH]

Truth and you aren't even on nodding terms, let alone acquaintances. You're a troll.

How is that answer on topic?
I think you are projecting.

 

[LifelongLearner]

How is that answer on topic?
I think you are projecting.

Let me think about this a moment, whose post is this? Mine!
Who is the unwelcome troll infesting it? You!
Now that's truth.

 

[cv5]

I agree except that A and E were created very good but not perfectly holy.

1) they were created eternal beings
2) they communed with God face to face
3) God only creates things perfect and wholly good

There is no reason to believe otherwise......unless you think God created death and evil and flawed things to begin with.

That is Satan's argument BTW. That God created HIM evil and flawed and his fall is somehow God's fault.
Also, Satan stridently argues that God creates beings WITHOUT true free will, and his fall was pre-planned by God Himself and inevitable.
Which again lays the blame for sin and death at Gods feet.

Of course I do NOT believe Satan's lies the way the Woman did.
Fortunately she repented as did Adam and God's Salvation that was foreordained before the world was the way of redemption.

You see, God, being wholly GOOD, planned REDEMPTION, but He did NOT plan evil and the fall of Satan and the first humans.

Which of course proves that God bequeaths true free will to his creation.

 

[LifelongLearner]

1) they were created eternal beings
2) they communed with God face to face
3) God only creates things perfect and wholly good

There is no reason to believe otherwise......unless you think God created death and evil and flawed things to begin with.

That is Satan's argument BTW. That God created HIM evil and flawed and his fall is somehow God's fault.
Also, Satan stridently argues that God creates beings WITHOUT true free will, and his fall was pre-planned by God Himself and inevitable.
Which again lays the blame for sin and death at Gods feet.

Of course I do NOT believe Satan's lies the way the Woman did.
Fortunately she repented as did Adam and God's Salvation that was foreordained before the world was the way of redemption.

You see, God, being wholly GOOD, planned REDEMPTION, but He did NOT plan evil and the fall of Satan and the first humans.

Which of course proves that God bequeaths true free will to his creation.

Nor is it God's fault there are so many mean spirited trolls on my post, who can't bear people disagreeing with them, or engage in mutually enlightening discussion.

Your assurance that you are God's advocate on earth needs a little more evidence for my taste.

 

[Mem]

The idea of a battle of wills implies there is a struggle between the strengths of opposing wills, or at least the power to carry them out.

 

[LifelongLearner]

The idea of a battle of wills implies there is a struggle between the strengths of opposing wills, or at least the power to carry them out.

Well, we do have the power to carry them out, that isn't in question. What makes our will not free is we can't always exercise it because of it impacting others. Will and choice are both well and truly in our toolkit, just sometimes we CAN'T exercise our will when we want to because it impacts others negatively, so it isn't free.

The only being who has true free will is God himself and i say Amen to that.

 

[Mem]

Well, we do have the power to carry them out, that isn't in question. What makes our will not free is we can't always exercise it because of it impacting others. Will and choice are both well and truly in our toolkit, just sometimes we CAN'T exercise our will when we want to because it impacts others negatively, so it isn't free.

The only being who has true free will is God himself and i say Amen to that.

I think that speaks to a power than it supports an argument for no free will. I want a private island. If God wants one, there's nothing that can stop Him from creating the reality. But, of course, He isn't as frivolous as I tend to me.

 

[LifelongLearner]

I think that speaks to a power than it supports an argument for no free will. I want a private island. If God wants one, there's nothing that can stop Him from creating the reality.

Not quite sure what you're trying to say here Mem, have read your comment a few times.
Edit: I don't think you're trolling, you didn't try to suggest i mean we don't have will.

 

[GWH]

Let me think about this a moment, whose post is this? Mine!
Who is the unwelcome troll infesting it? You!
Now that's truth.

Any objective person on CC should reprove you for calling someone who sponsors threads on apologetics, the creed, the HS, the TOJ, the TOP, the HOB and so forth a troll!

 

[Mem]

Not quite sure what you're trying to say here Mem, have read your comment a few times.

I don't always have the power to carry out my will, but the desire to do it is undeniably there.

 

[LifelongLearner]

I don't always have the power to carry out my will, but the desire to do it is undeniably there.

That's what i say too, we're on the same page Mem. It's why i'm so fed up with trolls like GWH spamming my post to disrupt intelligent, courteous discussion.

 

[LifelongLearner]

Any objective person on CC should reprove you for calling someone who sponsors threads on apologetics, the creed, the HS, the TOJ, the TOP, the HOB and so forth a troll!

Objectivity isn't in your toolbox GWH. You can't bear free and open discussion without your explicit permission, your self delusion is breathtaking.

 

[cv5]

Nor is it God's fault there are so many mean spirited trolls on my post, who can't bear people disagreeing with them, or engage in mutually enlightening discussion.

Your assurance that you are God's advocate on earth needs a little more evidence for my taste.

Talk to the ignore button.