Christianity contends that the problem of evil comes from the fact that their god gave us free-will. I contend that if the Christian god is omniscient, free-will is an illusion. If free-will exists the Christian god is not omniscient. Free-will and omniscience are two mutually exclusive concepts that can not co-exist. Any thoughts?
Congratulations on your 5th post It's almost as though you have been here before...in another life or account or something...
God doesn't act as an ultimate authority. It's better to compare it with a parent child relationship to understand the grace which has been given to us. Jesus said: "My words will set you free and when I set you free you're free indeed". --- for some it takes longer to come to this freedom ---
Are you saying that God and free will cannot exist together? If thats the case, then why are we able to make decisions on our own? God is God, and we will never be able to understand that. Whatever God wants to do, God can. If God wants to coexist with free will, whos going to stop Him?
There is no free will from God's point of view. Maybe from our point of view it feels like free will, and we're still held accountable for our actions, but you can see how there is no free will even if God didn't exist. Think of cause and effect. Every effect has a cause (probably millions of causes), which were effects of billions of other causes. It's easy to see how people get confused and think that choosing to get up and grab a pepsi is done of your own free will, but if you think about it, there were tons of little things that influenced you to that decision, and in the end, it's what you wanted most (due to all those little influences/causes), so you did it.
If there were such a thing as free will, no, I don't see why it'd be absent of consequences. One argument that people make is that without free will, nobody would be responsible for their own actions, because it would always be something else's fault. That's why I mentioned that I think there is plenty of reason to be held accountable for our actions, even though we had no choice. Being held accountable that way works in as one of many of the causes that may keep people from doing bad things. Thankfully, God forgives you of your sins if you accept his forgiveness, but on earth there are still (and need to be) consequences for our actions.
Consider it from this point of view. Earth is a reality show, We are living on a planet. After a certain amount of time, God calls us and judges whether we are right or wrong. Like American Idol. There is a judge who judges artists performance. If performance is good, you get a record contract (Heaven). If you are wrong, well you won't get the benefits. There is still free will from our part.
I would agree, from our point of view, it at least feels like free will. And I like the Reality Show analogy because the thing about reality shows is that they aren't actually reality. But the only performance I would say you are judged on is only one thing: whether or not you were a true believer and asked for forgiveness. A murderer can get into heaven just as easily as someone with a bad temper.