Please, a penny for your thoughts!

I am a christian, and yes we have our own Free Will and of course understanding, but this doesnt mean that we are free to do sins, God made us understand what is wrong and right, does He gave us the ten commandments to follow so that we will not burn in hell forever. Free will means freedom to do good and freedom to chose which one you want to live being a sinner or being a good one. That's why God made us human, human with wisdom to know whats wrong and whats right, animals dont have the mind that the human had. Thats why being a human we have our responsibilities to do good and avoid sin.

I think of the rules as suggestions instead of demands because I am here to tell you that if all you have to do to go to hell is break just one rule, hell will be more crowed than a airport during Christmas vacation time.i believe like you that free will is G-d given.And with free will you can decide which path is good for you. True there are rules , but you still get to choice which is best for you.

I think we have miss something here. The free will that God is giving us is the choice we make in our life, it's either to believe and follow Him (obedience to His words and commandment) or just what have you said, living the life that you wanted (disobedience). God had not made us robot that we just have to follow what He says. But he had given us our own mind and thinking that we could have a choice to make (free will). I'm not questioning your belief but I think it's very contradicting that you believe in someone that you don't even follow or obey. Just my opinion.

When one looks inside themselves, they find the limitations of getting to do whatever they want. Free will is a subjective thing. There is an old Bob Dylan Song that you probably know that says: It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord But your gonna have to serve somebody. *food for thought mode* A quote from a friend of mine named Lora: 'We are all a slave to something/someone our conscience demands. When we are not, sometimes we find ourselves a slave to something beyond our conscience as well as beyond our control.'

Yes, that is the biggest flaw in the abrahamic god... you cant believe in that AND free will.

This is a good discussion. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to respond to it. I understand what you are saying. Why would God grant us free will if there is a chance that we will sin against him?

Well if you are truly struggling with this, then that is a good thing, that means the Holy Spirit is softening your heart and your blinders will come off...otherwise what I am going to say will simply add to your confusion. First, all things were created by God for His glory. We were created to serve Him, however, He gave us free will because the angels' job is to worship him. So we have a choice to serve Him or not, just like our own children have the choice to obey us or not. When we choose salvation, to serve and follow God, we gain freedom. Yes to many who are not serving God that makes no sense. BUT, we are all created to worship something and until we find that something whether we know it or not we wander, looking for it. I have a screaming baby so I have to go and I am not able to concentrate at this moment so if I have not answered your question, please feel free to ask me more.

i will try to answer your question as best as i can... God creates us with free will BUT WITHIN HIS BOUNDARY. He doesn't want us to become like a robot (which He can if He wants to)... the true meaning of sin is MISSING THE TARGET or GOING OUTSIDE OF THE BOUNDARY... it is like we are living in a country with a law... we are free to live in whichever way we want as long as we abide with the law... when we break the law, then we will be arrested and put to jail... so yeahhh... we are free to make choices as long as we make the right choices and still within the boundary...

God has given us free will. It works the same as being a citizan of any country. In the USA we are free to live where we want to and how we want to. we are also free to commit crimes but when we do we have to pay the consicuinces. It's the same with God. You are free to follow him or not. He wants us to love him for who he is. By the way you don't burn in hell for ever. That's impossible if you think about it. You burn until your are consumed. Every one no matter where or how we live must follow rules. God wants us to love him and want to follow his rules. If we do because we want to then we are free.

The set of rules you are referring to has not been created not by God, but by man on behalf of God. If Jesus says ‘love thy neighbour and turn your other cheek if slapped on one’ (my Christian friends pls forgive my limited knowledge), then do we follow these to the teeth? No, we don’t. its our free will that prevents us from doing so. But dangle the law in front and we will follow, with the assurance that our grievances will be dealt with in the Court of Law and we need not take law into our own hands. So you see, God has not made the rules Himself neither can He come down personally to implement these. But He has given man enough brains to cultivate the rights and shun and the wrongs in order to create and maintain a set of laws conforming to the requirements of a civilized society on earth, where inspite of the ‘free will’, man will have enough obligations, bindings and humanitarian civic sense to follow a certain set of rules which aim to preserve a sense of order among God’s creations.

I think free will and sinning against God are two completely separate entities and the bottom line is that The 10 Commandments were written for a reason. Number one being "Thou shalt love the Lord your God...

Like many of your discussions, within lies another great and thought-provoking question. It is definitely a hard one to answer, though not utterly impossible. I have wondered this also and have gone in search of the answer. I will try to answer it as clearly and truthfully as possible. Answer: I feel that love is the dictator of my heart and soul, so my will hence has a heart and soulful dictator. I am held to my own high standards and laws and the love flowing through me that gives me the wisdom to know right from wrong and not confuse or split hairs for the fun of it or out of boredoms sake. Below is another 'non-christian' 'spiritual' influence that speaks of this question and also has an answer. It comes from a man named Aleister Crowley. It is hard to get the answer unless read in its entirety: http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/id386.html

You're right, this is sort of confusing. I didn't get to see that before. Indeed God gave us a set of rules to help us live good lives that will bring us to salvation. He would want us to follow faithfully but he also wants us to decide to do so for ourselves. He wanted us to be with Him out of love not because he programmed us to do so. This is just like a love story with your spouse. Would you like to have a spouse who is with you because you forced him/her to be with you? This sounds crazy but that's what the situation will be like if he didn't give us free will. He wants us to earn salvation. Much like the women like the men to earn their love by sweeping them off their feet. All the suitors are free to choose their tactics but the woman has to choose the one who has the greatest love for her(normally). Well, I hope that short explanation helped you. This is quite a task to fulfill.

Free will is really something that dosnt make since to me. I'll tell you im agnostic if not atheist about things after not getting any kind of sensation or meaning out of religion. God dosnt make any since to me. If we have free will god still knows what we do so if we do bad things its because god made us that way. religion dosnt make any since. QUIT IT.

Free will is the ability to do as we please and accept the consequences. Those consequences are place upon us by nature, other humans, or God. We can't choose how others respond but we can choose our behaviors. Thus we have free will and also consequences for our actions. No discrepancy. Sin is what we do that is against our beliefs. When we are judged by God we will accept the consequences of our sin. Peace to you and may our lives be better because we have crossed paths.

I read the previous responses and all are true and shed some light on what it means to have Free Will. God loves us so much that he made all of us different but in some way likeness of him. He gave us Free Will because he wants us to read his word and obey him through our love for him--not make us obey him. Just like your significant other has the free will to be faithful or cheat. You want your SO to love you because they want to and not because you have to make them stay in the relationship. It is true that Jesus has paid for our sins by the grace of God and therefore we should want to obey God. Of course God knows that we are going to sin and that is why he sent his son. We have Free Will to choose right or wrong. The series of Laws laid down by God aren't there to make us miserable, they were put in place to help us avoid some of the trials we face in life. You have to admit, the world would be a much better place if some of us weren't as greedy, envious,vain, lustful, etc.

I believe in Free Will, and will try to describe it the best way I can. God gives us free will, he also gives us grace and forgiveness if we ask for it. Therefore, if we sin, all we have to do if we are believers that Jesus has already paid for our sins, is ask forgiveness and it is immediately granted. If we are true believers, we will try very hard not to sin, and to live as God would like us to live. But God knows we are human, and fallible, and prone to sin. So he still offers his forgiveness to us when we sin even when we know better, and know we are sinning. That is the beauty of grace.

I am not of any religion. I believe we have free will so that hopefully we will learn from our mistakes. If there is a God then I believe he is forgiving. I absolutely do not believe in the burning in Hell theory!

I think that everyone always believe Free Will is exist.Only our life already adaptation this situation.Talk about God .He real exist?i don't know.I know that It's one's own for onself to try Fee Will.Don't Complaint anyone.Some talk no fine please excuse.

i read the whole text -- it concludes you are granted free will you believe in god you need not obey him you will not go to hell -- well its good!! every thinng in your favour!!!! is this your believe?? your rules to believe god as you wish pretty good to make ones life unrestricted. is there any heven that god has created?if yes all will go in it? even if you murder someone!! what do you say?godd pretty good.do what ever then.