Why / how would God providing compelling evidence of his existence remove our free will?

[ASimon]

1. Can you detect your thoughts, intentions, choices, principles, priorities, values and decisions with your senses?
2. Can you get outside your mind?
3. Can you know the material world **directly **or do you infer its existence from your perceptions?
4. Do you perceive things in exactly the same way as anyone else?
5. If not how do you know what the real thing looks like?
6. Is there any evidence that the brain **knows **what it is doing?
7. How does the brain make decisions?

8.** Which part** of the brain makes decisions?

1. Can you control yourself or does the lump of tissue in your skull do everything for you?
2. What are you? A mindless body? An impotent spectator of events?

All irrelevant, or otherwise answered. You are the product of your DNA, your parenting, and the totality of your life experiences since the moment you were born, if not before. This does not leave room for “free will.” Incidentally, even if you wanted to posit the existence of a soul, given to you by God, this fact would not allow for free will either.

 

[tonyrey]

All irrelevant, or otherwise answered. You are the product of your DNA, your parenting, and the totality of your life experiences since the moment you were born, if not before. This does not leave room for “free will.” Incidentally, even if you wanted to posit the existence of a soul, given to you by God, this fact would not allow for free will either.

There is no point in attempting to have a rational discussion with some one who ignores every statement and question from the other person.

 

[ASimon]

There is no point in attempting to have a rational discussion with some one who ignores every statement and question from the other person.

And there’s no point in answering irrelevant questions. The fact remains, you’ve offered no substantive challenge to my argument. You have your DNA. You have your upbringing. You have the totality of your experiences since birth. You have no hand in choosing any of these, and yet you presume to claim that everything you do in life is your “free will” at work. Where is this “free will” coming from?

 

[MindOverMatter2]

There is no point in attempting to have a rational discussion with some one who ignores every statement and question from the other person.

I agree with you Tony. He is not a rational person. He fails to understand the simple fact that Dogmatic Assertions do not form the basis of a well-reasoned rebuttal. Don’t waste any more time with this guy. Not unless you want to end up in a mental-home.

 

[MindOverMatter2]

And there’s no point in answering irrelevant questions. The fact remains, you’ve offered no substantive challenge to my argument. You have your DNA. You have your upbringing. You have the totality of your experiences since birth. You have no hand in choosing any of these, and yet you presume to claim that everything you do in life is your “free will” at work. Where is this “free will” coming from?

Well, obviously its not physical.

 

[jmcrae]

I’ve heard it said many times that God cannot provide compelling evidence for people to believe he exists as it would remove our free will. But as yet I’ve not found any solid reasoning the statement. It seems to simply be stated as a brute fact.

I have no idea. God seems completely obvious, to me.

I don’t know why other people don’t experience Him in a tangible way, but I feel certain that free will has nothing to do with it - I suspect, rather, that, just as some people are born blind, there are also people born without their “God-sense” and for that reason, they are unaware of His existence, just as a person born blind would be unaware of the sky’s existence, and have no way to verify that it exists.

I feel bad for those people, but I would have just as much trouble explaining God to them as I would to explain the sky to a person who was born blind - it’s obvious if you can see it, but any explanation of it sounds very strange - unless you can see it.

 

[tonyrey]

I agree with you Tony. He is not a rational person. He fails to understand the simple fact that Dogmatic Assertions do not form the basis of a well-reasoned rebuttal. Don’t waste any more time with this guy. Not unless you want to end up in a mental-home.

You have my sympathy after being in the heat of battle!