Matthew Hunter wrote: > On Fri, Nov 29, 2002 at 02:38:25AM -0600, Gametech > <voltronalpha at hotmail.com> wrote: >> 2. Who even says we have free will? Boxed choices seems to me not to >> be free will. Free will means unrestrained choices (though it can >> just mean the ability to exercise choice), the universe restrains us >> to its laws. If god created the universe all he is doing is giving >> us the ability to choose between his choices. That sounds very much >> to me like the lack of free will. > > That implies that omnipotence is the only route to free will. > That's not valid. Free will is the ability to choose your own > actions freely -- it doesn't require that the universe fulfill > your desires as well. > > I already prefaced the fact that I was using definition #2 to free will (unrestrained choice) God's existence would be a restraint to my choice, or for that matter universal laws that were unbendable with the right pressure applied to them, the latter would be ignorance tat restrained my free will but I can clearly go learn more about the universe to bend it to my 'free will' but you can't contradict an omnipotent being. >At any rate, if you are going to go to such lengths to continue > being obtuse, there's no point in continuing. You mean if I'm going to spend effort to explain my statements to someone who doesn't acknowledge my word usage (literal) you should quit reading because you aren't interested in what I have to say?