Kalam
Senior Member
- Mar 5, 2009
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I can assume that I've accomplished something in the absence of any intervening supernatural entity until the existence of that entity is demonstrated via valid and sound logical arguments. I'm afraid that this does not involve faith...You need to understand that attributing one's accomplishments fully to oneself is a great step of faith because there is no "proof" that you actually accomplished it alone.
There's nothing wrong with that, but I choose not to subscribe to such a belief system. Existence and consciousness are sufficient inspirations for me to live my life as I see fit. The God I conceive of does not take particular interest in the specifics of my religious beliefs; they're simply a means of attaining happiness in my own life and developing a conception of God that, IMO, is consistent with rationality and modern science.There are indeed influences around us. Many of them are very powerful, and even drive our decisions in a particular direction. However, the one thing you were correct about is that our choice to receive or denying the influences is indeed yours. What that choice does in your life is often directly connected to the source of the influence. The rightness of all of the other influences is just as impossible to prove as the influence of God. We cannot always point a finger exactly at the actual influencing source, or prove that it is actually the source. I choose to see God as the greatest of all inspirations in living a life on faith.
A God with foreknowledge and omniscience would have ordered the universe in such a way that intervention would be unnecessary for things to play out according to what God had already planned. Your statements here seem contradictory - there is no free will if our lives are subject to forced change by way of divine intervention.You said, "Wouldn't the need to intervene to solve problems within his own creation imply a lack of foreknowledge on God's part? " Absolutely not, when He has given the fullness of free will in our lives. We mess up, and His intervention is a blessing.