07-09-2023, 07:27 PM
(07-09-2023, 06:29 PM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: I believe God is responsible for giving us the ability to choose. However, I don't believe he is responsible for the choices that we make. To me, that is the difference. If you had the foreknowledge that someone was going to use a gun to commmit a mass shooting, and you put that gun near the shooter, I wouldn't say you were responsible for the shooting. However, I would say you were responsible for the gun being there for that person to use, but that doesn't make you responsible for the shooting actually happening because the shooting doesn't happen until the perpatrator makes the individualistic choice to use the gun.
I wanted to touch on this and clarify what you are saying in your analogy. I don't think that responsibility is a binary flag but rather a spectrum. If you knew that a person was going to commit a mass shooting and you supplied them with the gun to do so, then I would argue that you absolutely have culpability for what occurred. Are you directly responsible for the shooting? No, but you played are a responsible party and you should face repercussions. Are you saying that in this scenario, you don't believe the weapon supplier should be found responsible in any way for the shooting?
This is the struggle that I face. If the argument is that god is omniscient, then he has foreknowledge of everything. He knew that by giving his creations free will, it would lead to the vast majority of them suffering for eternity and that there would be rape, murder, pillaging, betrayal, all committed by his creations. What follows is more questions about his creations, such as disease. Why did he create them with the foreknowledge that people would suffer from them and die early, miserable, painful deaths? This is why that, even if god existed, I am skeptical that he has an endless amount of love for us. He has created an impressive number of ways for us to suffer - potentially for eternity - with the foreknowledge that we would indeed do so.
