Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Free Will, Aetheist and Words That End in "ic"

So the guy says to me, "I don't believe in God!"
And I thought, "Definitely an atheistic point of view."

"...And I don't believe in free will", he continued.
And I thought, "A calvinistic atheistic point of view? Wow!"

"Let me tell you what I think!", he said.
And I thought, "An evangelistic, calvinistic atheistic point of view! Wow!"

He went on. "What kind of a choice is 'do what I say or die?' That's not free will. What kind of a choice is that?"
And I thought, "A pessimistic, fatalistic, evangelistic, calvinistic, atheistic point of view."

I notice that atheists spend a lot of time being mad at someone they don't believe in.

Back to our story already in progress...

I responded. "Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better." Caught him completely off guard. Then I responded to his confusion. "So free will is only free will if both choices are good? What if I said to my son you can take the car but wear your seat belt and drive safely, and he doesn't. If uses his free will to drive 120, hits a wet spot and loses control, he might die. Can the father be blamed because the children don't listen to his explanation and get hurt? Why does it have to be two good choices? That's not free will."

The guy is not dumb and is very sincere. I can tell he was contemplating my argument. Then he changed the subject. Then he changed directions and walked away. My prayer is that he was changed in some small way. Maybe open in some small way to the Truth. Don't know, but I pray for him all the time.

So I guess you can say that I'm optimistic about my pessimistic, fatalistic, evangelistic, calvinistic, atheistic friend. I hope he never gets into magic or new age. I'd hate to add sadistic mystic to the listic.... I mean, to the list.

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