• SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    You’ve missed the point of the example situation. Throwing the jar at a person’s head isn’t one of the available choices.

    You’re missing the point of free will. Putting a limit on people’s choices is the antithesis of free will. I can make the choice to use the jam to make a sandwich, I can sell the jam, I can throw the jam in the garbage, and yeah, I can throw a jar of jam at someone if I choose. Some of these options are better than others, but free will means I make the choice, the choice isn’t made for me.

    If free will was really so important to create us with, god could have done so in a manner similar to the humanized people from the book.

    Free will is important since it’s the essence of creation. If we didn’t have free will we’d all just be an extension of God, not distinct beings. If there are no distinct consciousness, then it would be just God and nothing else. If there’s no distinct consciousness then there’s nothing really created. It would be all just thoughts of a single being.

    For there to be distinct consciousness there needs to be the capability to make choices, which means there’s there’s the capability to make bad choices. For me to be incapable of throwing a jar of jam at you there would need to be an omnipotent being governing my decisions. But doing that would take away my agencies and destroy free will. Destroying things is the opposite of creation, which would be against everything God is supposed to be.

    Just as we are capable of making choices, God is also capable of making choices. Choice is something that an omnipotent being should be capable of, right? God’s choice to not interfere with our consciousness is inseparable with the creation of free will.

    On the other hand, the false belief in a tri-omni god is in fact a prerequisite for a number of religions, and therefore are indeed weird superstitions deserving of mockery.

    And that is your choice. God isn’t going to stop you from making this choice. But is mocking other people’s beliefs making the world a better place?

    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Putting a limit on people’s choices is the antithesis of free will.

      There will always be limits on people’s choices. I don’t have wings, I cannot choose to fly. I don’t own a nuke, I cannot choose to nuke something.

      So because limits on free will are inevitable, they should be reasonable, which means no evil.

      For there to be distinct consciousness there needs to be the capability to make choices, which means there’s there’s the capability to make bad choices.

      As is demonstrated by the sandwich example, even when no evil choice is available, choice is still possible.

      For me to be incapable of throwing a jar of jam at you there would need to be an omnipotent being governing my decisions.

      As is demonstrated by Forever Peace, this is not the case. The mechanism for Forever Peace being that humans see others as an extension of themselves, thus being incapable of harming others, but there is no limit to other mechanisms that would do this.

      Destroying things is the opposite of creation, which would be against everything God is supposed to be.

      That would appear to be blatantly false. The universe constantly is destroying things. Celestial bodies get destroyed every day. Stars die, black holes consume, planets get bombarded with rocks from space. This planet alone has had 5 mass extinction events.

      Not a year passes where there isn’t some child starved to death or slowly killed by disease. Natural disasters wipe people’s homes off the face of the earth and kill thousands.

      The universe is an incredibly hostile place.

      But is mocking other people’s beliefs making the world a better place?

      When it is ultimately a force for suffering, yeah absolutely.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        There will always be limits on people’s choices. I don’t have wings, I cannot choose to fly. I don’t own a nuke, I cannot choose to nuke something.

        You can choose to fly because airplanes exist. Note how people can choose to use for transportation or use them to drop bombs or crash them into buildings with thousands of people inside.

        Also nuclear weapons exist and people can choose to drop them on cities and many thousands of people will die.

        It feels like you’re desperately trying to miss the point to avoid having thoughts that conflict with your current belief (or non-belief if that’s how you choose to term it)

        That would appear to be blatantly false. The universe constantly is destroying things. Celestial bodies get destroyed every day. Stars die, black holes consume, planets get bombarded with rocks from space. This planet alone has had 5 mass extinction events.

        Matter can’t be created or destroyed and energy cannot be created or destroyed. Matter can be converted into energy (and vice-versa) but nothing is ever really destroyed. Do you consider this to be a religious belief simply because conflicts with your argument?

        When it is ultimately a force for suffering, yeah absolutely.

        How much suffering was caused by the religious oppression done by atheists like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot? It’s not just religious people that causes suffering. I’m pretty sure it’s intolerance of the beliefs of others that the root of all of that suffering, which history has demonstrated that atheists are more than capable of. So I’m asking again, is your intolerance of the beliefs of others making the world a better place?

        • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          You can choose to fly because airplanes exist

          That’s not what I meant, and you know it.

          Also nuclear weapons exist and people can choose to drop them on cities and many thousands of people will die.

          Other people have that choice. I do not.

          It feels like you’re desperately trying to miss the point

          Given that you seemingly intentionally missed the point about the things that I cannot choose to do, I’d say this is projection.

          to avoid having thoughts that conflict with your current belief (or non-belief if that’s how you choose to term it)

          This conversation has nothing to do with the existence of god(s), it instead has to do with the existence of tri-omni god(s).

          Matter can’t be created or destroyed and energy cannot be created or destroyed.

          This is a false equivalence. If I burn down a building, it’s been destroyed even if the matter of the building still exists.

          Do you consider this to be a religious belief simply because conflicts with your argument?

          Are you here to have a serious conversation, or just waste time?

          How much suffering was caused by the religious oppression done by atheists like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot?

          This has no relevance. You completely missed the point of everything I’ve said, I hope not intentionally. Because this line of thinking isn’t coherent.

          • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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            6 months ago

            Nope I honestly don’t know what your point is. You gravitate towards absolutes more than most religious extremists do. Like if you’re not an omnipotent being with every power you can imagine then you have no choices? But then you also think that the fact that world is some primitive video game where there’s only very simple A) B) C) style options it would be a paradise and you’re angry at God because the world doesn’t work like that. Personally I find it frustrating when a video game limits my options to that degree and the option I want simply isn’t there. Doesn’t feel like I really have a choice if I’m only allowed to do the things they were considered to be valid options by someone else.

            Yeah having choices makes for problems, but those are our problems to deal with.

            This is a false equivalence. If I burn down a building, it’s been destroyed even if the matter of the building still exists.

            And the atoms from that burnt building will go elsewhere and allow for the creation of new life. Nobody ever teach you about the circle of life, Simba?

            Because this line of thinking isn’t coherent.

            I think we’re basically done here. You’re just rejecting facts that conflict with your inflexible world view now. Atheists have killed a great many people in history, that’s a fact. You reject that fact because you want to believe that religion is the source of everything bad in the world. Can’t face the reality that a lot of evil has been done without religion being a factor, and a lot of evil has been done by people that think of religion similarly to how you think of it. It’s almost as if intolerance is the problem and it’s the same problem if it’s coming from a religious person as it is when it comes from an atheist. Being intolerant towards all other beliefs than your own doesn’t make you better than others, even when if you do everything you can to deny that you have beliefs.

            • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Like if you’re not an omnipotent being with every power you can imagine then you have no choices?

              That is not even close to what I was saying.

              But then you also think that the fact that world is some primitive video game where there’s only very simple A) B) C) style options it would be a paradise

              This is an oversimplification of a very easy to understand thought experiment.

              and you’re angry at God because the world doesn’t work like that.

              I’m not angry at god, I don’t believe gods exist. Are you angry at Thanos?

              And the atoms from that burnt building will go elsewhere and allow for the creation of new life. Nobody ever teach you about the circle of life, Simba?

              Thanks for this waste of time.

              Atheists have killed a great many people in history, that’s a fact.

              A fact that has nothing to do with any of this.