free will?

In class we've been discussing the concept of free will and whether we as Christians actually have free will, as God claims. We believe that God is omniscient and some might argue since God is all-knowing how is it possible that we are able to have free will. God already knows what decisions we are going to make and what actions we are going to take before they actually take place.

At the beginning of the discussion I was so set in my reasoning about how God allows us to live our lives without imposing his knowledge on what takes place. As more and more people started giving input I started to think about how if God knew the outcome of the earth, why He didn't just destroy the evil and save the righteous the moment Adam and Eve sinned? Some people would say that God was giving all people the opportunity to repent and turn away from their evil ways because He is a merciful God. If God knew ahead of time who would turn away from their sins and who would continue to live sinful lives, why wouldn't He just save time and destroy the earth?

I believe God is giving everyone an opportunity to learn about Him and form a relationship with Him, because if He just destroyed the earth, then our free will was being taken away from us. Even though God knows what we are going to do, we are still able to do it freely. I don't believe that our lives our written out before they occur, I believe that they are written out as they happen.

I can't fully explain what I am trying to convey, but there is no ordinary way to explain how God works either.

Prop 8

Since I didn't post a blog last week, I decided to post another blog about my views on California's Proposition 8. If you have not yet seen the video that Professor DeVitto sent us, I posted it at the bottom of my blog.

Personally, I am against this particular proposition because, like the pastors featured in this video, I believe in the separation of church and state and that the government should not have the right to dictate who can marry who. Since I am Adventist, I do observe and believe in the Biblical views of homosexuality, however, my religious affiliation and the religious or moral beliefs of anyone in congress does not give the government grounds to impose their values on everyone, including homosexuals. If this proposition passes, the whole basis of the amendment is flawed and it would have to be altered in a way that the basic rights and freedoms of every American does not apply to all citizens. Why do we care so much about gay marriage? How would their marital union affect us as a state? I think we should focus on the real problem that is plaguing many marriages today: finding a way to make them last and decreasing the divorce rate. Just my thoughts.

I wonder...

I stumbled across this video on YouTube and I thought it was pretty interesting. I have often wondered about many of these questions myself, and everything that this person is stating makes sense. However, I never thought to really seek out any solutions because I believed that my faith in the Bible was sufficient. In a way Descartes is kind of defending his view on God based on his own faith as well. He believes that he owes his existence to the state of perfection, a quality that is possessed solely by God, and because God exists, we exist. A concept that I am not entirely sure I agree with.

I wonder, if Descartes were alive today, how he would respond to these atheistic claims. How can a God so perfect allow all these terrible things on earth to happen? I think this is a question that many people, Christian and non-Christian alike, are struggling to find an answer to. It is hard to have a firm stance on an issue when there are so many convincing opposing arguments. How is it possible to prove or disprove any of these statements? I'm still not quite sure how to even prove my own existence, let alone the existence of the world around me and how it came to be. Maybe there are just some things that we will find out when we get to heaven, if heaven even exists.

Existence of God

Tonight, after our choir performance, a group of my friends and I started discussing the existence of God. One of the members of the choir had just finished telling us that after being raised a Seventh-Day Adventist his entire life, he started to question God's existence. He was skeptical about the idea of creation and how there was a single Being that was responsible for our existence as humans. He also brought up the idea that Jesus, Himself, was against the whole concept of Christianity as a religion because Christ worshiped the God of the Jewish religion.

When, someone else brought up the fact that Jesus considered Himself to be the Son of God, he responded by saying that He might have meant that as some sort of a metaphor.

That comment had me thinking, what if all the words that Jesus said were metaphors? He does refer to all of us as being sons and daughters of God. I'm guessing the problem that my friend had was trying to grasp the concept of a group of people worshiping and creating a religion to glorify a human being, who claims to be humble, but at the same time calls Himself the Alpha & Omega.

Before this conversation, I was very one dimensional in my way of thinking. My friend's claims unfolded a whole new series of answers for me to discover.

another reality blog

So after philosophy, I was chatting with my buddy, Michael, about the discussion we had in class. I was explaining to him my views on the class, the discussions, in particular. Alas, I too fall into the vast majority of the students in class who have had a hard time grasping the concepts being discussed. I think my lack of understanding is due to my unwillingness to question everything that I have learned throughout my walk of life. I'm too stubborn and too set in my ways to wonder "what if?". I feel like this is keeping me from fully committing to the discussions. I was a little discouraged today in class after trying to come up with a counter-argument, because I just couldn't think of any way that I disagreed with Gabriel.

Later on, I brought up the idea to Michael of everyone in our universe unknowingly taking part in some sort of virtual reality. Some sort of twisted World of Warcraft alternate universe, where a few nerds are getting a kick out of controlling our every thought and action. I meant all this as a joke. Michael, however, agreed with my scenario and actually thought it to be quite possible. At this point I just started to get annoyed and completely tuned out.

How do we know what reality is? Is there anyway for us to actually know if this is reality? I know we've been hearing these questions all week long, but I'm seriously stumped here. I can't even begin to think of ways to tackle these questions. bleh. sorry professor, totally stumped.