Posted by David on January 10, 1997 at 06:52:37:
In Reply to: Free will and its contradiction in religion. posted by Stephen Charchuk on January 09, 1997 at 23:33:32:
: What I mean by this is that many Christians, or any other religous persons for that matter, say that we have free will in that we chose to belief in their god or not, but when one doesn't chose to belief one is accused of being influenced by some evil enity "away" from their truth. IMO this negates the concept of free will. Can anyone else see this contradiction when they say we have free will and than say the we are being influnced as well?
Just because somebody is being influenced doesn't mean that they have not got free will. Look at elections, most people would say you have the choice to vote for who you want. The fact that you decide to vote one way doesn't mean that you haven't got free will. Similarly in religious eyes you can vote for God or the devil. If you are seduced by the offerings of the devil it doesn't mean that you didn't have free will in the first place.