What's your level of willpower?

[SSTeacher]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

 

[Eucharisted]

We have free-will to love God. I wouldn’t ever give up the chance to love God

 

[nohamaria]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

Hi,
Your question is very confusing one and it seems imaginary and
would never happen.
I am very happy to have a free will to love God.
Yes I would freely dedicate it to God and only to Him.
I should be living in peace when nothing evil could disturb my soul.
I’ll give up my free will to God and I’ll trust that he will save me.
No to Anything that will put me away from being with God.
My humble answer.
Peace and Good.
Nohamaria.

 

[kyria]

My soul’s level of willpower to follow God’s will entirely is very up there, but the rest of me has zero will power.

I just want the rest of me to be inline with my soul. Soul said yes, rest of me is finding it very difficult to fight the darkness and keeps falling into sin.

I’d be most happy to be able to never sin again and give total will over to the Father if it meant I’d never have to struggle with this fight agains the darkness again.

The soul is climbing higher and quite well, but the funny thing is the rest of me is falling down quickly. It is like as one part of me climbs, the other falls. It is such an inner battle that is very fatiguing, so I am quite fine with giving my free will over to God.

 

[Katholish]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

One could argue that this is precisely what Heaven accomplished in us. It is our irrevocable free will decision to accept God’s grace. Perception of the Beatific Vision in Heaven excludes the possibility of sin, nor would you say that you are actively using your free will to love God in Heaven. In Heaven, you don’t have a choice, perception of the Beatific Vision is such that the will cannot help but choose it.

 

[Oreoracle]

I’m not Catholic, so I wouldn’t know, but I think your question leads to a contradiction. You asked if anyone would give up free will for a sin-free life. But here’s the thing: free will is a gift. Rejecting any of God’s gifts is, by Christian doctrine, sinful.

 

[SSTeacher]

I’m not Catholic, so I wouldn’t know, but I think your question leads to a contradiction. You asked if anyone would give up free will for a sin-free life. But here’s the thing: free will is a gift. Rejecting any of God’s gifts is, by Christian doctrine, sinful.

I’m not Catholic, either, but I know people who are.

Yours is a thoughtful response. I’d like to encourage you to take your thinking a little further and consider whether or not our Savior gave up His free will when He prayed:

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.

After you’ve thought about the implications and how they impact my question please transcribe your conclusions and post them. I’d be most interested to read your reflections.

Hopefully,
Mick

 

[warpspeedpetey]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

yup, i have a wicked heart and an eye for ladies.

the combination of which have left me ashamed of the way i behaved for most of my life

even, now trying to live chastely is a constant battle.

i need free will much less than i need G-d. so yeah, i would give it over in a heartbeat.

 

[SSTeacher]

yup, i have a wicked heart and an eye for ladies.

the combination of which have left me ashamed of the way i behaved for most of my life

even, now trying to live chastely is a constant battle.

i need free will much less than i need G-d. so yeah, i would give it over in a heartbeat.

Your declaration is refreshingly honest. Well done!

Admiringly,
Mick

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

No - because that would be too high a price. Interesting question, though ​

 

[SSTeacher]

No - because that would be too high a price. Interesting question, though ​

Would you care to detail your thinking?

Grace and peace,
Mick

 

[Benadam]

Absolutely not. If true freedom is in being able to do what ought to be done, it’s loss is what causes the condition that causes it to be blamed.

It was the absolute freedom of will that enabled Jesus to submit it to His Father’s.

This choice didn’t render Jesus’ will null and void but manifested it’s absolute power over death. Jesus had the power to lay down His will He could therefore raise it up.

I think this is what some posters are saying when they sy they would like to hand over their will to God. Which if they could they wouldn’t need to. At least for the reasons given.

The only way this can be done I think is by being willing to place ourselves under a rule of life that decides for us our every act.

I hope these concepts aren’t so elementery that I’m the only poster who would think they contribute to the discussion

 

[tee]

If you had the chance to give up your free will and in so doing would never sin (do evil) again would you give it up?

Why or why not?

Curiously,
Mick

At first it seems like the answer would be yes, but in truth no one should give up their free will. So my answer would be no, I would not give up free-will and here is my reason why.

First, your goal is to be love God and experience that joy of being with God. To do so, you must not sin, but to know what is love and what is joy is to have free will. Love is an exchange of affection and adoration of one another whom freely comes together. If one of the party has no free will, then there is no love between them. Thus, if I were to give up my free will so that I can not sin, then I’m but a dead soul to my God.

However, if you will your free will to do the will of another (God) then that’s different. That is coming to God with your free will and offer him your servitude out of love for Him. Now that is free will love.

 

[Jan_Bolbot]

Without free will we cannot truly love God.

God can accomplish His own purposes without us if need be; He asks for our love and the sign our love is our assent to His will (to the extent we are able).

To give up our ability to choose good or evil would in a sense oppose part of God’s plan. It is perhaps precisely our will that we must tame in order to follow God.

Jan Bolbot

 

[Saintlucy]

A hard question to answer and one that, I’m sure has crossed our minds, if we’re honest.

We are in the here and now. We are intelligent, reasoning human beings and we are trying to work out our salvation. I’m speaking as a Catholic, of course. I don’t think I’m saved by faith alone. That would be very easy.

I do not understand the protestant view of sola fede Do they just ride each storm and know that they will be OK with God? How can we work out our salvation if we don’t have anything to do? I repect their view but I certainly don’t believe in it. It doesn’t make sense.

I love my animals and they give love and know that I will feed them and look after them. They have a learned faith in that fact. Pavlov and his dogs showed that to good effect. Do they have free will? No, I don’t think so. They know that if they do certain things they will get the reward they desire. They act on instinct.

If I am ill and can’t give them love and food and games, it hurts them. Then they get upset and act out of character. Do they think, “Oh, stlucy’s not feeling too good at the moment, I leave it 'til later?” I don’t know but I don’t think so.

Level of willpower? Mine is pretty low because of my genetic makeup perhaps, or my personality. I think it’s because of my pride. I am a great sinner. However, I’ve never heard of a saint who didn’t struggle. Free will is a gift. It makes us human. Give it up? No.

 

[MarysGirls]

Wow . . . that’s a hard question . . .

(Deep breath) Well, at first I thought that not having a free-will would be good, after all, I wouldn’t be able to sin as you already said; however, wouldn’t that just make me a robot - not being able to love on my own? I’m glad I don’t really have to choose if I have one or not. I’m terrible at big decisions.

 

[morgantj]

God knows what is going to happen before it happens, Everything is part of gods plan, therefore things are predetermined by god, and as such, we cannot have free-will.

 

[Oreoracle]

Wow . . . that’s a hard question . . .

(Deep breath) Well, at first I thought that not having a free-will would be good, after all, I wouldn’t be able to sin as you already said; however, wouldn’t that just make me a robot - not being able to love on my own? I’m glad I don’t really have to choose if I have one or not. I’m terrible at big decisions.

I think that line of thought is perfectly normal. It reduces the scenario to a simple question: Is your consciousness more important to you than a sliver of God’s happiness?

 

[MarysGirls]

I think that line of thought is perfectly normal. It reduces the scenario to a simple question: Is your consciousness more important to you than a sliver of God’s happiness?

Well if you put it that way . . . NO.

 

[Benadam]

God knows what is going to happen before it happens, Everything is part of gods plan, therefore things are predetermined by god, and as such, we cannot have free-will.

God’s forsight doesn’t hinder the ability of certain creatures to be self determined.

You may know exactly what a colony of ants will do but that doesn’t mean you determined what they would do.