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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[origamiscienceguy]

Wassup believers here is another silly wolf question: could god create a more powerfull god?

Yes, he is all-powerful and is perfectly capable of doing this. But, he is also omniscient and all-wise and perfect. Doing this would be contrary to his nature.

Another: God spoke to me last night and told me to find one of his followers, then to ask them to kill me.
Would you do it?
Could you do it?
Or would you say im crazy?
If im crazy, then what makes the prophets speak the truth?

I'll answer back with a question. Did god do any of this to you last night? If not, then there is no need to worry about this.

[freeformschooler]

DON'T EAT LOTS OF FOOD RIGHT AFTER FASTING.

Meanwhile: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/18/newton-religious-school-postpones-lent-due-to-snow-says-we-have-suffered-enough/

[Sheb]

To the 12 Catholics here/other denominations that do it: what are you doing for Lent? I'm going to be joining the Catholics for a fast tomorrow. Considered giving up coffee for Lent, but let's not be reckless here.

I think I'll get into premarital intercourse, but that's less a matter of it being lent and more of a matter of having someone to do it with.

Hey, Congrats Helgoland! May you two rot in hell happily ever after!

[That Wolf]

*returns with an armored female dwarven corpse carried by the teeth

I have a story, it involves an event that I still ponder to this day what it was.

My semi grandad is actually just my grandmas bf but who cares about that.
At the age of... maybe 11 12 I was at the grandads fathers house, he was a ww2 navy veteran and the first time I met him, I saw a strong man in a weak body, white hair and an epic white beard, a weathered face that had seen much and had forgotten even more.
He told me to come close to him and quickly picked me up placing me on his lap and he placed his firm and almost skelletal hand on my head and tosseld my hair, asking me the basic questions "what are you going to do when your older" all that. I liked him but was intimidated by him.
He died a few years later and then the semi grandfather got the house and after a troubling time in my life I ended up living there for a bit (small beach house) I liked it. It had a homely warmth in it.
One day while playing my N64 legend of zelda majoras mask (still my favourite game, its beautifuly dark and has a great interweaving story for such a small amout of production time)
I was in the annoying sand temple, ikana i think. So while playing this and trying to remember the dungeon I was alone in the house and the doors where wide open like always so I could have easily heard footsteps.
I decided to go to clock town after derping on the temple. Probably to attack the bomb bag theif.
I felt a hand touch the top of my head from behind. Except it felt like it touched my skull, it immediatly sent shivers down my back and I got up and looked around for anyone.
I told my father about it and he heard me but kind of ignored it (not a very open man my father, he wont speak of religion or deep shizz for any matter)
Ive told people with many answers been given.
So here it is. A little story about me. Can you answer it?

[Askot Bokbondeler]

To the 12 Catholics here/other denominations that do it: what are you doing for Lent? I'm going to be joining the Catholics for a fast tomorrow. Considered giving up coffee for Lent, but let's not be reckless here.

I think I'll get into premarital intercourse, but that's less a matter of it being lent and more of a matter of having someone to do it with.

that was hilarious

*returns with an armored female dwarven corpse carried by the teeth

I have a story, it involves an event that I still ponder to this day what it was.

My semi grandad is actually just my grandmas bf but who cares about that.
At the age of... maybe 11 12 I was at the grandads fathers house, he was a ww2 navy veteran and the first time I met him, I saw a strong man in a weak body, white hair and an epic white beard, a weathered face that had seen much and had forgotten even more.
He told me to come close to him and quickly picked me up placing me on his lap and he placed his firm and almost skelletal hand on my head and tosseld my hair, asking me the basic questions "what are you going to do when your older" all that. I liked him but was intimidated by him.
He died a few years later and then the semi grandfather got the house and after a troubling time in my life I ended up living there for a bit (small beach house) I liked it. It had a homely warmth in it.
One day while playing my N64 legend of zelda majoras mask (still my favourite game, its beautifuly dark and has a great interweaving story for such a small amout of production time)
I was in the annoying sand temple, ikana i think. So while playing this and trying to remember the dungeon I was alone in the house and the doors where wide open like always so I could have easily heard footsteps.
I decided to go to clock town after derping on the temple. Probably to attack the bomb bag theif.
I felt a hand touch the top of my head from behind. Except it felt like it touched my skull, it immediatly sent shivers down my back and I got up and looked around for anyone.
I told my father about it and he heard me but kind of ignored it (not a very open man my father, he wont speak of religion or deep shizz for any matter)
Ive told people with many answers been given.
So here it is. A little story about me. Can you answer it?

you didn't ask a question :\

[i2amroy]

He did ask a question, that of

Can you answer it?

Of course, since "it" could be anything in this case, I think I'll answer the question with the answer of "yes", where "it" is the question "What is the answer of 3+7?" and the respective answer to that question being "10".

That said if you want a more scientific answer, I'd say you were hit by a faint bit of a draft (since you mention the doors were wide open) that created the feeling of something brushing against the hairs on your head. At this point your fight-or-flight response kicked in (especially since I can attest that that particular dungeon develops a rather creepy atmosphere after a while) which intensified the sensation (since all of your hairs tried to stand up) and created the shivers that ran down your back. Personally I've experienced a rather similar thing a couple of times, though it tends to happen on your neck instead of your head since the hairs there are finer and more sensitive.

[TD1]

Yes, he is all-powerful and is perfectly capable of doing this. But, he is also omniscient and all-wise and perfect. Doing this would be contrary to his nature.

[That Wolf]

It was open to inderpitation.
But I just had a story to tell.
I love that game. Wheres my bunny hood.
Alright lest I derail again I will keep it religious.
So would you say link was dead/having a spiritual exp in clock town? or is it the nature of time travel? Cause the song of sorrow/healing is sarias song backwards isnt it.

[TD1]

Yes, he is all-powerful and is perfectly capable of doing this. But, he is also omniscient and all-wise and perfect. Doing this would be contrary to his nature.

Err, this was meant to have text with it...which seems to have gone. So, I'll type it out again.

If he is perfect, then he can not make a more perfect being.
If he is all powerful, he can't make a more powerful being as to do so would make him not all powerful. If this is true, he is also not all powerful.

The "all powerful" tag contradicts itself in many ways.

[Rolan7]

In my opinion there's a difference between being "all-powerful" and being capable of any describable action.  Something that can manipulate physical reality without limit, but cannot feel fear or remorse, is still all-powerful.  I think most people would assume that an all-powerful being would have great or unlimited proficiency with the power, though technically that's an assumption.  One could imagine a being capable of eating suns but without the skill to harden a pharaoh's heart, for example.

"Can God create a rock he cannot lift" is still an interesting question, though, for a different reason.  It's another way of asking whether God can relinquish any of his power - stop being all-powerful.  Ironically, for the answer to be yes, he has to have a certain weakness:  He can't have perfect foreknowledge and control of his actions.  Otherwise any release of power is simply a choice he has made, and all the consequences are directly by his design.

Even if God had the ability of perfect prescience and gave it up, he still knew every consequence when he made that decision.  Everything is still exactly according to his original design - even if he manages to avoid peeking later.

Which is back into the (rather frustrating) free-will discussion, of course.  It's just clear to me that, for there to be actual free will, God could never have been completely omnipotent and omniscient.  Not that that disproves the Christian God...  Frankly, he's portrayed as having a lot of flaws in judgement, not to mention character.  It just highlights the impossibility of God being perfect.

[i2amroy]

Unless, of course, you assume that he could see all multiple branches of every choice. Then it's totally possible that he could take steps so that every path ended in ways that he wanted them to from the beginning, but each person could still have choice in the middle. So you would still have free will in the sense that you would be able to choose to take whatever path you want, it's just that the end result of all the paths (at the end of the universe) would have the same net result.

I think a big problem people run into with the whole "all powerful" definition is the fact that they try to mix multiple systems. If you have something that is all powerful, in the system you can't make something "more powerful" than that. It's like comparing infinity and infinity +1. Because infinity is a concept and 1 is a number the statement "infinity = infinity + 1" is a totally valid one. Similarly a "more powerful being" than one that was "all powerful" could be said to have the same amount of power:
infinite power = infinite power + 1 power

[Rolan7]

With perfect prescience he would know which branches would be chosen, rendering the branches meaningless.  Besides, he can alter reality at a time to any degree - there are no branches, because if necessary he can rewrite the entire world (or change someone's mind) at just the right time.

Except that I don't think the Bible supports him being perfectly prescient, or even all-powerful really...  He creates the world in stages, the Israelites lose some battles despite his blessing, and well...  the Problem of Evil.  He acts like he gets tired, or at least needs time to plan things.  He lets himself get convinced by mortal arguments for chrissakes    Whereas a perfect being would have been aware of the argument and made his decision at the beginning of time.

[i2amroy]

With perfect prescience he would know which branches would be chosen, rendering the branches meaningless.  Besides, he can alter reality at a time to any degree - there are no branches, because if necessary he can rewrite the entire world (or change someone's mind) at just the right time.

Point. (Course I'm really just playing devil's advocate here, personally I'm a hardcore determinist. )

[That Wolf]

The link is nothing to crazy. Its interesting to hear and find out that what happened to me is legit.
Link to the past
Cause back in my day Id do anything and I just ate them to get away.
They just enhanced my problems and made me look at what I was doing.
And I changed, slowly and im still changing.
Introduce yourself to my gods. Listen to the lessons they teach. Never forsake your own thoughts or religion, just let it enhance you.
A key grows in autumn. It will open the door

I took a shortcut a path that many take a life to get to.
I recommend them. Treat with respect and reverance and please don't eat to many.

thanks for letting me say my peice sorry for being a dick.
Im going quiet here unless im questioned,
Love you guys n gals

[Orange Wizard]

The link doesn't load for me at all .

He lets himself get convinced by mortal arguments for chrissakes

Source? That sounds... unusual.