Free will? or god's will?

[ShaklesOfBigGov]

Family Of Toddler Shot Dead By 5-Year-Old Brother: ‘It Was God’s Will’

by Steven Bernstein • August 25, 2015


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Besides the tragedy that guns can bring, there is no deadlier combination for moral and legal responsibility than guns and God. Just ask the family of Caroline Sparks, a two-year-old toddler who was shot with a .22 rifle by her brother- who was five years old, and received the gun as a birthday gift.


What is most difficult to comprehend is the family’s response. Little Caroline was described by her family in the video as a “church-going girl who enjoyed singing and playing outdoors,” as if she understood and chose to accept Divine Revelation at 2 – and go to church.


Acknowledging the tragedy, Caroline’s uncle said “It’s just tragic…It’s something that you can’t prepare for,” as if you should ever have to. The family believes that Caroline is in a “better place.”

The grandmother said “It was God’s will. It was her time to go, I guess…I just know she’s in heaven right now and I know she’s in good hands with the Lord.”

I'm putting this in Religion in hopes that it won't be a discussion about giving children access to guns.

Every once in a while, I think to try again to actually discuss religious beliefs. I'm fascinated by the concept of "sin" but even more by the teeter-totter belief in "god's will". I say "teeter-totter" because it seems to me it is often invoked when people can't or won't take responsibility for their own decisions - "free will" and instead, blame their god.

There's a documentary showing on HBO about fundies disagreement with Darwin - a subject for a different thread. It shows a very tragic case of a young teenage girl who had suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident and will be forever paralyzed.

She and her parents believe the doctors are wrong, they pray constantly and the mother expressed her disappointment that god is choosing to ignore her asking for her daughter to walk again. (This also reminds me of those who believe in faith healers, don't seek medical care and believe the bad outcome means someone didn't believe hard enough) Then she said that her faith gives her great comfort and said she could not imagine how non-believers could bear such a tragedy.

Where does the responsibility lie? Isn't god all knowing, all seeing? If so, he made these tragedies happen by directing an adult to give a baby a gun and by making a truck hit the car the girl was driving. (Or was it the doing of satan")

If the tragedies are caused by free will, if the adult and the car/truck drivers made the decisions then why bother bring a god into it? And why pray to a god to change the outcome of the people's actions?

Needless to say, my own opinion is that the people involved are directly responsible and that god is a human construct borne of an inability to understand and accept the world as it really is.

Anyone?

God can't change other people's actions, he only works on those that are open and seeking to change. Yes it's true we each have "free will", freedom to accept or reject, freedom of our own choices and consequences we bring to our lives. God will not force himself on you, rather it's through "invitation only" and the willingness to want to see your own life changed for the better. There will always be circumstances in life which will demand your attention in an effort to influence a reaction. You have the choice to allow those situations around you to effect who you are, or change who you are in how you react to those situations in your life.

 

[hangover]

You can't be anything but what you are....Do you really think the billion people born in the Muslim world have free will?...or the two billion people born in China?