Firstly, for the duration of this post, let's put aside the question of whether 'God' is a figment of the imagination or not. Let's just go with the idea that 'He' is real.
Secondly, let's also put aside the question of whether we have 'free will' or not. It's an interesting subject, but for this post we'll go with the idea that we do have 'free will'.
Thirdly, to get into the spirit of the thing (no religious connotation intended!), I'll even drop the 'scare-quotes' from now on...
Okay. So, did God give us free will? As I understand it, our free will is an essential part of religious teaching. It certainly is an essential aspect of the Christian doctrine. If God didn't give Eve and Adam free will, then humanity could not have been condemned for those two miscreants' sins. After all, the notion of sin can only exist if we have free will; the ability to choose a sinful action instead of a non-sinful one, or vice versa.
[Hmmm. Perhaps I should have added a fourthly to the intro, about leavimg aside the question of whether it's possible, even if you have free will, to commit a sin if you don't yet have any knowledge of good and evil (because you haven't yet eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). And while I'm at it, let's not go into the question of Adam and Eve's historocity - we'll just pretend they did exist.]
When it comes down to it, God must have given us free will. And for an obvious reason. Without the ability to freely choose how we behave, regardless of the actual choices we make, be they good or bad, the whole caboodle of sin, and the consequent need for salvation, goes out the window. God could have simply removed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or restricted access to it, but he didn't do that because doing so would have removed the opportunity to commit the sin of disobeying him. In effect, removing the tree would have been the same as withholding free will.
Why, then, do so many of His modern day followers seem so intent on removing free will from those of us who don't agree with their version of what's right and wrong? In lobbying the politicians to restrict or remove this or that option from the populous, are they not going against God's will? His will was to give us all free will. How daring they are to go against God's will by trying to remove, or restrict, our ability to exercise the free will He gave us. Oh, I know they'll find this or that justification via some interpretation of scripture, but I wouldn't want to be in their shoes if they have to explain themselves to Him - he has a bit of a reputation for smiting and casting asunder.
I've been waiting for an excuse to include some Frank Zappa, and now I've got it. Isn't free will a wonderful thing...
You Are What You Is available at Play.com
Okay, that's the end of this post so I suppose it's time to get down to some housekeeping. I'm not one for sweeping things under the carpet, but just look at the heap of scare-quotes I dropped!
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