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Free will and God’s love
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Free will and God’s love
Why is it that God created us with free will? The most common claim is that without free will our love for God would be disingenuous. Although I do believe that part of this claim is true, I asked myself if there are situations in which one can love without choice. When you look at the love a mother has for a child it seems as though that wasn’t chosen but part of human design. So maybe it is that only a creator can have genuine love for its creation without choice, but it does make me question if there are other reasons for free will.
So when considering the argument about free will in heaven it makes it seem as though we wouldn’t need free will to love God genuinely in heaven. If free will is not the only way to ensure that we choose to love, then God must have also had another reason for giving us free will. Although I don’t claim to know what that reason is, it makes me question whether or not we will have free will in heaven.
The common claim is that free will is a sign of God’s love for us because we are not being coerced into loving him. But if there are instances in which someone does not choose to love yet feels genuine love like a mother, then wouldn’t it be possible for God to create us in that same way? But if it is only a creator that can feel that sense of love, then the ultimate sign of God’s love for us is simply through creating us. From a Christian belief, the only way to get to heaven is through believing that Jesus is the son of God, and following that, we choose to serve God out of love. Therefore the only people in heaven will already have an established love for God. And if we see God’s love through his creation (humans) then there is no need to have free will in heaven. We will understand God’s love for us, and we will grow in our love for him.
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1 Reply
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Recently I’ve been pointing out God would be bored did the creatures not have free will, because He would in essence be eternally interacting with only Himself, not another (that He had made and given free will). And it would seem free will is necessary at every plane, including the quintillions of insects, for such things as foraging, locomotion, etc.
It seems erroneous to me to think God would want to ensure that the creatures love Him. That would imply a selfish motive of some kind, for instance to draw attention. Do you think God make the creatures for an audience? No, I think the way it would work is that any being of power and purity would enjoy their existence, and find that God is lovable for His goodness. Then also, love of God wouldn’t be the primary purpose of a creature’s existence, instead being aware of the realities they know about the Creator, and recognize their greatest joy (and power) comes from acting and thinking in harmony with Him.
I don’t think love is ever choiceless, or in another way of saying it, mindless. Love proper is a power of the soul used to support the conclusions of reason. It is thus activated upon descrying lovable traits. For, it is well to live in harmony with the wise, and feel good about it as well as being in their presence. God is not bound by choiceless love, and if humans feel they are perhaps it is instinct in them, that Socrates might say is unexamined.
How to serve God has not been defined. As we’ve gone over at the forum, each sect lays out a different path and typically declares the others invalid. I suppose humans feel they have been given an intuition about this. And they feel God answers them inwardly in prayer, reassuring them that their service is authentic, as Jesus said He’s send the Comforter. But I’d offer my small voice against the proposition humans serve God well.
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