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I am religious and believe in free will

70 (27.6%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

113 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (24%)

Total Members Voted: 249

[UXLZ]

That was the point, OW. If God is actually Omniscient then there's no way He could ever regret anything without changing if he was also Omniscient. I actually wrote what I said badly, though, what I meant was that in the grand scheme of things, if even a single being anywhere is truly omniscient the universe is on rails it's never getting off from.

Although from what I can gather, I'd say it's more likely that His regret was more along the lines of "It is sad, but it must be done."
Which is also kinda stupid since if anyone could Take a Third Option it would be God. Maybe He's trapped by fate or something, I dunno.

[wierd]

My take is that he is trapped by his own rules.  While theoretically capable of doing literally anything, he is forced into doing NOTHING under many circumstances, or into doing things he dislikes (such as said regret) under others, in order to avoid being a hypocrite.

This is also why the accuser/satan/"insert title here" is still around; God and this entity have been having a pointed argument that God refuses to just GodMode Sue out of existence. 

Biblical God seems unwilling to GodMode Sue his problems away.

[Bohandas]

That was the point, OW. If God is actually Omniscient then there's no way He could ever regret anything without changing if he was also Omniscient. I actually wrote what I said badly, though, what I meant was that in the grand scheme of things, if even a single being anywhere is truly omniscient the universe is on rails it's never getting off from.

Although from what I can gather, I'd say it's more likely that His regret was more along the lines of "It is sad, but it must be done."

Of course that would mean he's not omnipotent

[wierd]

Perhaps, but perhaps it is him trying to live up to not being a complete despotic tyrant.

A god that does not obey the very rules it lays down for others is not a just god.  The christian god proudly proclaims being a just god. That means that while physically capable of doing evil things, it simply wont do them.

The argument then has an analog like this:

"So, you say you are omnipotent?"
YES. I AM.
"Cool. Murder this guy."
NO.
"C'mon, it's not like it matters to you- you can murder him an unlimited number of times and simply resurrect him instantly afterwards. He wouldnt even realize you had murdered him. There wouldnt be any consequences! Just do it!"
NO.
"So what you are saying, is that you are NOT omnipotent!"


Basically, the morality of an omnipotent being transcends consequence as we think about it. "god" would know that he had comitted a murder, even if the murder lasted 0 picoseconds before the stiff was brought back to life.   If he did that, he would not be fit to judge other beings.  Thus, he willfully does not engage in such actions-- even if it is more than possible for him to do so.

[UXLZ]

You mean like all those times He didn't murder massive amounts of peop- Oh... Though I'll admit I can't remember the justifications for those actions, as Omniscient and Omnipotent everything that happens is by God's express will and permission. It can't not be. He's trapped by his own actions.

There's also this analog:

"So, you're omnipotent, omniscient, nothing but benevolent and can do utterly anything?"
OBVIOUSLY.
"Cool, can you make this guy happy? He's been wanting to commit suicide for years."
NO.
"Wait, why not, I thought you were only benevolent?"
A LIFE LIKE THAT HAS NO MEANING.
"Can't you just make it have meaning? You're omnipotent, right?"
ER...

[Descan]

Also all the horrible deaths in the world. Those are still things.

[scrdest]

I think the omnipotence is a mistranslation that just got held over into dogma by the terrible ancient power of MUH TRADISHUNS (much like horned Moses or *hem*virginbirth*hem*). The equivalent Greek term, Pantokrator means 'ruler of all things' - which technically is translatable to 'omnipotent', i.e. has power over all the things, but has more broadly encompassing connotations which cause the classical paradoxes.

[TempAcc]

Ye, the omnipotent and omniscient qualities attributed to god could quite possibly been just results of mistranslations. At no point does god specifically mention he knows everything, AFAIK, nor does god seem to "read minds" in the bible, altough he does have insight on several thing, and ocasionaly makes prophecies, but this could just be god predicting the results of a plan he's working on, rather then actual precognition.

Omnipresence is thing thats mentioned or implied, though, and is a quality that became more explicit when the idea of the trinity (father, son, holy ghost) was conceived, and this quality is attributed to the "holy ghost", meaning god is literally everywhere at the same time, meaning god is yog sothoth :v

[penguinofhonor]

.

[scrdest]

god is yog sothoth :v

If I lived in States of USonia, I'd be massively tempted to go out on a road with a sandwichboard with 'LORD knows the gate! LORD is the gate! HPL 19:28-29' right about now.

[Bohandas]

meaning god is yog sothoth :v

You know, it's been a theory of mine for a while that the name "Yog-Sothoth" is meant to be a corruption of "YHVH-Saboath"

[lemon10]

Ye, the omnipotent and omniscient qualities attributed to god could quite possibly been just results of mistranslations. At no point does god specifically mention he knows everything, AFAIK, nor does god seem to "read minds" in the bible, altough he does have insight on several thing, and ocasionaly makes prophecies, but this could just be god predicting the results of a plan he's working on, rather then actual precognition.

Omnipresence is thing thats mentioned or implied, though, and is a quality that became more explicit when the idea of the trinity (father, son, holy ghost) was conceived, and this quality is attributed to the "holy ghost", meaning god is literally everywhere at the same time, meaning god is yog sothoth :v

From my readings of the old testament (but not yet the new), it seems that there are two kinds of prophecies: One of them is god going "This is what I am going to do", and the other being "This is what is going to happen naturally".
The first only means that he is immensely powerful, and can basically choose the outcome of events if he choses.
The second means that god can indeed see the future to some degree, although this pretty obviously has some limits as there are some things he doesn't predict.

I should note that I don't have anything remotely concrete to back this up though.

[TempAcc]

meaning god is yog sothoth :v

You know, it's been a theory of mine for a while that the name "Yog-Sothoth" is meant to be a corruption of "YHVH-Saboath"

god is yog sothoth :v

If I lived in States of USonia, I'd be massively tempted to go out on a road with a sandwichboard with 'LORD knows the gate! LORD is the gate! HPL 19:28-29' right about now.

Now here's the thing: in hermeticism, when god talks to Hermes Trismegistus, he calls himself "Poimandres"/"Pimander", and says that he is only god's mind ("the mind of the great lord"), meaning he's Nyarlatothep :v!

[scrdest]

Yeah, but it's just classic Nyarly to go around pretending he's some other god.

[ggamer]

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-should-we-respond-to-caitlyn-jenner , in which Jon Bloom of desiringgod takes a different view of caitlyn jenner's story, namely, not being a fucking idiot about it.

Interesting read, even if you don't agree with what Bloom is saying.

FAKEDIT: interestingly enough a couple writers on that website, such as John Piper (!!), still subscribe to the view that LGBBQ folk obviously have some sort of spiritual craving or mental trauma that they're dealing with, which I don't have to tell you is a hilariously outdated notion.