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CS Lewis on Free Will & The Problem of Evil
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- Опубліковано 30 гру 2009
- CS Lewis, a noted Christian apologist and author, takes on the problem of free will and the problem of evil. Lewis attempts to deconstruct the objections of critics and explain why free will is preferable to determinism. In addition, the problem of evil (theodicy) is integrated into discussion by explaining how evil is a necessary byproduct of a population with free will.
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I love this guy, read his literature, and listen to all his audio recording to understand him on a deeper level..
God is love and love is free, total, faithful and fruitful. CS Lewis is brilliant!
I'm a Christian, though we have our disagreements on some issues, I think its cool when I can agree with Muslims and Jews about theological issues rather than being at logger heads with each other. Thanks for uploading C.S Lewis, hes the man.
Cs Lewis was a devout Christian !! Please do accept Jesus my brothers and sisters
Amen
0 God Bless You if you are planning on suicide Otherwise - Piss off -bersa888
That is a very hurtful and immoral thing to say. Such a phrase would not come of God but of the Devil.
bersa888 Well first of all I only said it because he told the Muslim chap to kill himself. I myself am a Christian and think telling people to kill themselves isn't very nice. Also I don't expect anyone to respect my faith or my values it is up to them if they choose to disrespect me. I was only stating that it wasn't very Christian thing say, if I said nothing it would be a bit ignorant towards my faith.
Filip laskovski nonsense foolishness
CS Lewis is one of the greatest theological minds of the 20th Century. Posting to Face Book immediately!
A brilliantly lucid and comprehensive speech that leaves little scope for schism. I am glad that I am old enough to enjoy C.S. Lewis again. Thank you for sharing!
C.S Lewis was one of the greatest apologist for the Deity of Jesus Christ that the world has ever known. He certainly did not believe Muhammad was a prophet of his God.
Do you mind elaborating my good friend?
The CCC read Mere Christianity from CS Lewis :)
God bless
Are you saying that Christianity and Islam cannot overlap on anything?
Nobody said so. Christianity, Judaism and Islam have tons of things in common
@@ethicalmemeing7060 the gospels don't agree with Islam though
Amen to CS Lewis. Jesus Christ is the icon of the living God. He is the spirit of God and the everlasting word of God. He is God himself :)
AMEN!!!
Amen 🙏
My guy, that's idolatry smh.
Great thoughts, I love this man! I can't wait to meet him in Heaven
You do realize that C.S. Lewis was Christian, right? I'm slightly confused. Based on his beliefs, I'm very confident that he would argue against Islam with every bone in his body.
Thomas He did consider Islam when he was troubled during his atheist life. xD
Thomas There are similarities. Both worship the God of Abraham.
According to the afterword he wrote to "Pilgrim's Regress" his intellectual progress was: Popular Realism, then Philosophical Idealism, then Pantheism, then Theism, then Christianity. books.google.com/books?id=9eOXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=Pilgrim%27s+regress+afterword+romantic&source=bl&ots=6KRZtHYKSL&sig=TTCXx-Qn8S4TWUTuZH7-udEtZcE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjR3YTtubfTAhUR7WMKHf-sCBQQ6AEIIzAA#v=onepage&q=Pilgrim's%20regress%20afterword%20romantic&f=false
If he considered it, he then utterly and totally rejected it. Islam is a myth that is also a lie.
David, indeed Mohammed was obviously a false prophet for those that look at the question critically. And Lewis had a brilliant critical mind. Rather Islam spreads primarily through birth rates and terror rather than reason.
I myself, if I had any children would start with the parables from the gospels, they are both good stories and give the essence of what Christianity is about; love of God and your neighbor(even your enemy), as the golden rule to guide your life.
Jesus Christ is Lord, He is the Son of God. Praise Jesus Christ! 💗 C.S Lewis was such an amazing man on fire for the one and only God, Jesus Christ. Love this!
Jesus was a prophet
Lewis' capacity for introspection is greater than Freud's.
Both started as atheists, but each in his own way found God.
A common theme of all atheists is issues with authority.
Once they accept the possibility of a higher authority, they open their minds to God.
Bob Beckle "A common theme of all atheists is issues with authority."Sort of true: i don't see how you can merge the idea that the morality of a person describes "how he freely chooses the way he thinks we should live" and also screams "an obedience to vague and ill-defined set of ancient ideas".
For the rest this is just an empty assertion that can be flipped back right at you.
Authority figures are usually misleading pieces of shit. God isn't the same.
P.G. Burgess well a person feels like they can do whatever they want but can he? We have been shown constantly that one can't for a variety of different reasons and circumstances In this world (based on what they did) they could go to prison,they can be crushed by their own regret,they can judged by others and it can effect ones socail standing,they might lose out on loved ones.any decision you make you do just that of course make a decision therefore your varying up the possible things that could happen based on your decision.if you had to choose to make that decision then of course there's a hierarchy of authority as you wouldn't need to think about that decision if there was no one to answer to(yourself or other people) God is that thing inside you telling you what is morality right or wrong we have free will to make certain decisions yes but we can be tortured mentally or in other ways because of them.if humans were complete machines then it would be pointless for us to be here
Awesome clip! Thank you for posting this!
Thank you so much for sharing this with us! God bless 🙏🏼❤
Thank you for posting this. Muslims and Christians should be able to freely discuss ideas, whether they relate to faith or philosophy or any subject. Faith requires first reason; if reason were not required, then the words of scripture would be nothing more than gibberish. We need our mental faculties to either embrace faith or to reject it. This is the inescapable fact of human freedom: even those who deny freedom act on this basic truth. This is why faith and reason go hand in hand.
"When you argue against Him [God], you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all. It is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on."
Humans were in constant contact with God and were on good terms with all nature, including wildlife, until they broke his one law in consuming the fruit of good & evil.
smdahl by
Just in case Islamic worldview didn't know allah is not YAHWEH.
+Alex Risley For your information the Arabic word for God is Allah, used by Christians and Muslims alike.
No thanks, you keep that bad information for yourself.
Now now... Surely both have plenty of ignorance and superstition, no need to fight over it.
Mike Singh I assume you are not an atheist for your position consists at the very least of a misrepresentation of reality.
Alex Risley Actually Arabic speaking Christians call God "Allah" all the time.
Interesting to find one of the most eminent Christians of our time, quoted on an Islamic youtube channel....
Its good to see an islamic channel posting an eminent Christian apologist!
If that entity created me, and created me to love Him, I would call that a pretty reasonable request from Him. To not love Him, as He created me to do, would seem very ungrateful and unreasonable of me.
Tesla referenced human energy 🌬👻jesus christ referenced living waters 💎👨🎓👩🎓science described water memory 🌊👨🎨👩🎨existence reflecting psychologically, psalms16:24 k,j proverbs 27:19👻💖💎👨🎓👩🎓🗽🤍🧮⚖☄🌪👨🎨👩🎨🌬
And I swear, I believe the one God Jesus
CS Lewis is good man
Don't swear. You own nothing to swear by.
Yes
Amen 🙏🏼 in the name of Our King Jesus
Really superb video. 3 minutes of articulate genius.
Close your eyes and picture Jauffre from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
JXEditor We must retrieve the Amulet Of Kings
I think it's dumb to criticize Muslims for posting what most people consider a Christian doctrine shared by a so called "Christian" apologist. Can't two or three religions share doctrines? Is there such exclusivity that a doctrine such as free will can belong only to the Christian faith?
+charles atwell Besides Lewis wasn't even a Christian in the strict sense of the word. He was a Taoist.
+charles atwell Terrible trolling. Or just completely daft
+charles at well Again, wrong. Not Taoist.
+charles atwell no
He WAS a Christian. What are you talking about?
Poor people without God.!
They try to create him at their own will and expectations, in other words at their own image.
But it is the oposite we were created at his image.
Also i notice that they deny his existence, but i see the hidden desire that they themselves want to be worshiped for their intelligence.
Vanity, emptiness, nothing.
Yes one has to fear God, it means to obey, worship him and tremble before his prescence.
Because God is good, very good and pacient, but he also is just, he waits for us, but not forever.
People have a misunderstanding of the meaning of "GOOD", they make it sinonimous of " fool", saying i can do whatever i please,
he is so good that i can get away with disobedience for ever or maybe he does not even exist.
Psalm 14:1
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”.
If you really knew God , you wouldn’t be on UA-cam writing comments, you’d be out there day and night savings souls and proving you are Jesus followers by raising the dead , healing the sick,casting out demons and speaking in tongues ! Especially given that it looks like wer approaching the end. I hate hypocrisy in the church. I admit I’m struggling with repentance and Jesus but I’ve read the bible and there’s so many fear mongering Christian’s out there thinking that they’re doing God favour when they’re not. Be demonstrable
I didn't know that an all-powerful Being could take a "risk". If you are all-knowing then you know what the outcome of your creation will be. Whether you are religious or not there is an answer to the question of good and evil and it begins by telling you that good and evil do not exist the way you were taught. The problem is that this argument was not meant for mortal ears.
If I am not free to be evil, I am not free to be good.
In this comments i see people that think they are smarter than God, and that could do better job than him.
But there is a problem we are the created ones, we have not created anything, maybe just transformed everything that is already created.
One should see what we have done like the human race with each other, and to nature.
I believe we can not blame God, for our mistakes like human race.
I see just insults and bad will in this comments, nothing of profit or uplifting toward each other, and talk about being better thinkers than the Holy God.
we live in a real world where our good and evil actions have direct consequences and indirect consequences upon us and those around us. God’s desire is that for all of our sakes we would obey Him that it might be well with us (Deuteronomy 5:29). Instead, what happens is that we choose our own way, and then we blame God for not doing anything about it. Such is the heart of sinful man. But Jesus came to change men’s hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, and He does this for those who will turn from evil and call on Him to save them from their sin and its consequences (2 Corinthians 5:17). God does prevent and restrain some acts of evil. This world would beMUCH WORSEwere not God restraining evil. At the same time, God has given us the ability to choose good and evil, and when we choose evil, He allows us, and those around us, to suffer the consequences of evil. Rather than blaming God and questioning God on why He does not prevent all evil, we should be about the business of proclaiming the cure for evil and its consequences-Jesus Christ!
Dude I need some help and you look like you know what you're talking about, give me a shout please.
Well said
CS Lewis has a good defense here of free will and love.
If anyone wants to know, these statements are taken from C.S. Lewis' 'Mere Christianity' book; specifically Book 2 ch. 3. Mere Christianity is divided into 4 books. Don't worry the entirety of Mere Christianity is about 230 pages, so a short read but really powerful.
The Quran does say to go to the people of the bible for answers ;)
Yeah because they won't find them in their book
couldn't find any Islamic philosophical minds and therefore had to borrow C S Lewis?
So contrary to modern day Calvinist theology. John MacArthur, John Piper and others simply do not grasp this concept. C.S. Lewis was a brilliant mind.
I would be glad if the Christians here could just appreciate that our Muslim brothers find something of value in the Christian tradition as we often wind something of value in Theirs, instead of arguing over differences. No wonder religious dialogue is rarely possible, since both sides resist (and in this case, it is the Christians, really humbling).
dude, he is a christian.. Stop copying videos without permission.
+Prudy Ray I used to think so too. I found out recently that he was a Taoist.
+charles atwell Haha nope. Don't know where you got that idea
+Erick Davids One of many sources. Research it. www.goodreads.com/quotes/252238-the-tao-which-others-may-call-natural-law-or-traditional
+Erick Davids www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/05/the-dalai-the-tao-cs-lewis.html
+Erick Davids web.archive.org/web/20031202212241/www.trinityfoundation.org/reviews/last.asp
If free will is so important, then why God send us so many tragedies caused by nature and that kill so many children before they could exercise any free will in their lives?
We don't understand death...I think to God it is a split second to be in eternal perfectness. We as humans mourn our loved ones while they are in heaven rejoicing and just waiting for us. We will not ever understand on this earth why there is so much evil...but it really does come down to one major thing....a spiritual battle. Who's side are you on?
Katrina Mossman If you mean a battle between good and evil, I think I'm certainly on good side.
But, anyway, regardless of understanding death or not, is exercising freewill in this life really important? Isn't that the reason why God allows so much suffering to exist? I am not referring to mourning or pain, I am just trying to see if this argument about the need of freewill is consistent with our real world.
twiligame Did men create tornadoes and tsunamis and lightning strikes and all fires, and all viruses, and all diseases, and earthquakes, and animal attacks and whatever else? Men did none of these things, and men can do nothing without the power of God. God is Evil and the creator of everything including all the evils that exist and that is why God is to be feared and worshiped.
A Foxy Fox twiligame was just being sarcastic, of course.
Gaudio Wind Oh yeah, I think you're right. I was just demonstrating in affirmation how it is ridiculous that people blame humans for "evil" or "harm" and how far away from ancient conceptions religion has also come. Even to say "to God it is like this" as if something that is supposed to have knowledge of everything wouldn't know how things like death cause the living to suffer. It is all pretty ridiculous, but then again it is good if it is an attempt to try to understand, especially if it is a genuine attempt to try to understand. The ancient concept of God, affirmed in the Bible, Hindu texts, the Qur'an, and pretty much all old religions is that God is supposed to be the source, sustenance, and animating principle behind everything we experience, and is thus the creator of all that is beneficial to us and all that harms us, and the fact that God was considered potentially harmful was why God was feared as a concept. Even in the New Testament it specifies that people aren't to be feared, but God is to be feared specifically because God can do the most harm to a person. God was considered all pervading and ever present, without image, but many religions created symbolic forms to encompass certain attributes within informative pictures or sculptures, like the idea that God is the ruler of all fate and events so is shown in a way that people might understand since many were also illiterate. This becomes a problem as it is sometimes taken literally by people and even today people imagine God or Gods as literal forms rather than just another word for the nature of things as they are, the reality or ultimate reality or ruling principle behind everything. It is likely people were ignorant just as they are today, but it is also possible that people instinctively understood this and there is documentation that affirms that God throughout the world was not understood to be a form but just another word for the power behind all things in nature. Countries with a tendency to both poetically and symbolically render things would make images for everything from night to thunder and more abstract concepts like honor and love even and did not take any of those literally. Today the biggest problem is people thinking that God means a man in the sky who is all loving, and there is just no such thing, and if there were, it clearly has no power. The God of old, call it nature or reality if you like, is demonstrably evil, admitted to such in practically all revelations from around the world, and that is what defined God and was the driving force behind worship and the development of religions. The terror of God, which was not something which required faith, but was evidenced in all existence, clear for everyone to see, that nature or the ultimate reality behind everything is powerful and full of potential to harm. Thanks for your reply, sorry for the length of this post.
In response to people saying that good can exist without evil, think about this; say that no evil actions exist, consider then that in this world only good actions are possible. The simple fact that one can only choose the good option itself negates its goodness, if all possible actions are good, then good looses its descriptive ability, there are only acts. Logically an absence of evil acts, makes good acts every bit as nonexistent, it follows that only acts exist at that point since good is descriptive of the opposite of bad, and if bad did not in fact exist, there would be only actions of one sort and no need to differentiate them from something that does not exist.
Mattheiu Taelor I agree that if you want to define these labels you need a difference between to points. But..- You might not be able to label things as good or bad.. those labels are not neccessary to live meaningfull lives filled with wellbeing. Just the labels dissapear.. and the actual harm and judgement. But it would still be a great world.
- If for some reason you see a need to differentiate between the two... Any interval would do.
With a cruel analogy: you don't need crippled people to get eaten by the lions to differentiate between me or UsainBold.
There could be a world where the worst thing that happened was not having your favourite flavor of icecream.. and not having to starve to death whilst others have to many luxuries.
P.G. Burgess Agreed
i love c.s. lewis work, i have a skeptical mind set as it is, but throughly enjoy his work. he is a great thinker thats for sure. this is a pretty short clip from his book but it was a good one :) thx for the upload
"God can not choose evil. Therefore God is a robot." - C.S. Lewis
maybe god is perfect, as in pure love with no evil
"evil is ignorance, love is truth and is a lesson you cant forget" me. i d say god could choose whatever it wants, but it wants love
using that quote is like telling a lie, in the context of the argument Lewis is showing that without free will we would all be no better than robots, programmed to perform certain functions. would you like to spend eternity with a bunch of computers programmed to love you? Every kind comment, every word of love, programmed into the dead machine by your own hand? Did you know that God used to come to the garden of Eden in the cool of the day to visit man? It's right there in Genesis, we were created in God's image to be His friends, some say 'I am so happy to meet you God and yes I like your goodness very much and I want that goodness for myself so that we will not be enemies when real life begins'. Others say 'you are very arrogant to assert your dominion over me, I have no interest in you, I am far too busy seeking after my own good, be gone with you!'
Zev Aravot And Lewis was wrong just as you are. If God can have free will and only do good then He can create beings who have free will and only do good.
It is a lie for you and C.S Lewis to say that created beings can't have free will and only do good.
Help me understand your point, before clarifying about man and free will, let me first address your point about God being only able to do good. God sent an evil spirit to harass king saul, God sent a flood on the earth to destroy mankind, so lets not say that God is restricted in what He can do. Secondly when you talk about free will I am talking about absolute freedom, the ability to choose any path for any reason. The free will you are speaking of is incredibly restrictive. Let's say God made man to have free will and only do good. that man can not be motivated by greed, lust or pride so his only motivation is to do good. His neighbors are all the same, everybody going around just looking for an opportunity to do good, gridlock in the kitchen because everyone wants to wash the dishes but nobody wants to offend anybody or quarrel, if i found myself in this hypothetical eutopia I think I would go crazy.
C.S. Lewis was definitely a Christian, I'm pretty sure if you've read Surprised By Joy, Mere Christianity, among others it is abundantly clear. Lewis became a Christian on a motorcycle ride to the zoo. After a late night talk at Oxford with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. Also, Tolkien was a Roman Catholic.
I just read through every single comment and have said many personal prayers of salvation.
Why would I do this?
I may save one person's life. It was your free will to listen to and comment on this segment. One without greater questions of theology would not invest the time and thought to make a comment.
--God Bless
I am only a poor high school theology student, so blame me not for my ignorance, but as I have heard the Euthyphro dilemma stated (Is what is morally good commanded by God because it is good, or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?) it doesn't seem to really conflict with Lewis's ideas about free will. God is omnipotent and omnicescent (sorry this word is really hard to spell), so as creator of the universe he knows what is right for human beings. He gave us reason and love to
A lot of people obsess over whether they are "Calvinists" or not, yet they still want you to believe they are Christians. It's like saying "I'm of Paul, or I am of Apollos," it's really vain and worthless; more than that it reveals how these people think. If they truly only followed Christ, they would simply say "I am of Christ; I am a Christian," but they do not. Although I agree with Lewis on the vast majority of my beliefs, I still only follow Christ: all Christians should.
@Circumpunk but the point I was making was that God could insure that nobody ever sins WITHOUT effecting freewill whatsoever by simply creating one of the worlds where he knows we only use that freewill for good. Most Christians tell me that God can know the future and we still have freewill, so then God should have done this, and therefore Freewill cannot be used to explain away the problem of evil.
you seem intelligent and i am clever enough to know that internet debates solve nothing 99% of the time. Take care mate!
nothing would be perfect without free will,
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things”...-God, Isaiah 45:7.
religions are completion,and the wars never end.only pure love saves,only children have pure love.
It is not impossible to act against your nature, it is merely improbably. There are many reasons a person will act contrary to their nature. Being all powerful the only thing influencing him is himself. Being a certain way and making everything he does align with it forever when the only influence is what you want can only be sustained if you find joy in it. If God finds joy in doing right and there is an opposition to good then the equally opposite emotion of sorrow would be attached to evil.
Guys, just cause its a christian speaking doesn't mean the content of his speech cannot be congruent with islamic teachings. perhaps this is an area of agreement between faiths.
You are absolutely right, good sir.
This does not make God not all-powerful, it simply makes dignity, achievements, goals, a FINISH, and most importantly free will possible. If God is our finish line, and we have the dignity of choosing, which is the only way that love is possible, we must be able to fail in order to succeed. I want a a person to love me genuinely by choice, not to be forced by mere cold programing of their brain. There is no ability to love without the adverse being lack of love. This does not makeGodLessPowerFul
Because evil is born of desire, and desire born of free will
Happy to see that Muslims and Christians can agree on the fact that God/Allah grants free will to us so we can obey Him. I only hope now that Muslims will realize that God also loves us with a culturally-shocking, otherworldly love that is best exemplified in the parable of the prodigal son and honestly demonstrated within the Gospels themselves.
thank you Sir, so much for posting this great video.... I read this before and am so happy to see that someone has made a video and posted it perfectly. Grace to you in Jesus Christ
here is a good place to debate this issue.
It is crystal clear. Being free to do as you will is limitless. Lets say you have infinite possibilities and someone tries to explain your possibilities in a finite way, of course there will be many ways to interpret it. Any time you take different parts of infinite they will never match up perfectly. Much like a pie if you all take a different piece then you will never see the whole pie.
This guy was a genius.
Thank you for this video Islamic world view God bless you
I know where he's comming from. If doing wrong only affected us, or object God didn't care about then the analogy with a child leaving a mess that is against the will of a parent holds. But there is a vulnerable spot in C.S. Lewis' argument:
What if that child started hurting another child - also against the will of a parent. The parent then interferes to spare the innocent child unwarranted anguish. Why does a personal God remain conspicuously absent during genocides, and plagues?
I have a friend who is absolutely addicted to CS Lewis writings. Same guy seems to have rejected his love for holy scripture and prefers CS Lewis. I don't know if Lewis intended this to be the fruit of his work but it seems to be a pattern that is apparent in those who respect him too much for his intellect . Christianity does not reject intellect but it does teach us that knowledge puffs up and love edifies. There is a temptation for people to be wise in their own eyes. In my experience it seems that a lot of the followers of CS Lewis are stuffy puffed up individuals.
You make a good point. Lewis said himself that if anything he wrote or said did not help a person draw closer to Christ that they should throw it away and forget it altogether. Lewis would be very bothered and completely opposed to the idea of people eschewing scripture for his writings. I feel pretty confident in saying that. He's just not for everybody. In this respect, he is no different from any other human being whose works have been published. A person can be a Christian, decent, kind, devout, highly intelligent, highly literate, and dislike Lewis the author. I don't think his very close friend J.R.R. Tolkien cared much for Lewis's work. Yet, they were close for decades.
Your friend no doubt wants you to love Lewis's work as much as he does, but that's not possible. I hope it is not the case that he sets Lewis above scripture, but if you really believe this is so, you should talk to him about it, as a friend.
Lewis admits God is not omnipotent in the absurdist voluntaristic sense when he admits it seems to be impossible for free will to exist without evil (or at least its potential). The very word "risk" implies a lack of omnipotence. I agree with his theodicy here; I just wish apologists would be more up front about the fact that God is not omnipotent in the radical sense.
A brilliant view from a brilliant mind. Thanks for the upload!
So basically, I argue that free will is a concept that doesn't apply to God. The choice we're offered in free will boils down to the choice for good or evil. That boils down to a choice for or against God. To say that God has the opportunity to choose against Himself would be a contradiction in the terms of his nature.
Saying, "God is morally good," is like saying, "God is God." Saying, "God cannot sin," is like saying, "God cannot be not-God." And when you say that God cannot be not-God, it seems a sensible thing to say, and not contradictory to Him having free will. After all, you have free will, but that does not mean you can be not-human. Always distinguish between the creation and the creator.
How can this man be so bold as to proclaim that god exists and he made things which have free will? If he thinks a god exists and he created us, I do not see something created by someone else having any free will. If I create a robot to do certain things, it has no free will, only my will.
"Animals don't suffer much if at all..." Even a cursory glance through the available data shows that you can't have listened very hard.
US "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals": "The ability to experience and respond to pain is widespread in the animal kingdom...Pain is a stressor and, if not relieved, can lead to unacceptable levels of stress and distress in animals."
The limitless capacity for willful ignorance sometimes genuinely amazes me. the ability to do wrong has no relationship to someone's *choosing* to do wrong.
Think about it (or try to think about it) this way. Both of us can choose chocolate ice cream, vanilla, or dog crap. We car both completely free to choose any, all, or none of the above, in the same way that we can choose chastity, consensual sex, or rape.
That we have the physical capacity to rape or eat dog crap doesn't mean we have to.
If NOTHING is absolutely certain then how do you know the thoughts you are sharing have any relation to reality? How do you know your mind works? As C.S. Lewis says...when you argue against God you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all.
God does not provide obedience. Obedience is an act of submission of the wall. He simply gives us someone worth obeying.
God's law is written on our hearts. Therefore, He does provide a moral framework for our lives.
Its actually very easy. Because if you say a name of a prophet or something god related or youre reciting something from our holy texts, one letter is equal to I think either 100 or 50 good deeds
Note carefully: "We love because he first loved us." For CS Lewis is preaching self-righteousness, the illusion that we can create an inner goodness that will please God. For we love God because he created us, gave compassion, pity and charity to us --- and the only way possible to love God is a grateful submission.
For all Bibles are identical in thought to the Catholic Vulgate Bible, all contain 32 contradictions and to escape the corruption of thinking that we have an inner-goodness that can choose salvation, you need to study the ancient Greek manuscripts of the Old and New Testament. For example:
"For he who knows the future has predestined a few to conform to the exact
likeness of his Son, who was the first one brought to life of all the brothers.
And those he predestined he surely calls, and those who are called, he surely
makes righteous, meaning harmless. And those who are harmless,
he most surely will glorify." Romans 8:29
"The bread of ours, the needs of life, have all been given to us this day.
And by you forgiven we are the blood guilt due and owed by us,
as also we forgive those deep in debt to us." Matthew 6:12
"For if there is deep regret for the sin of ours, full faith and trust do we have,
and right do we stand before God. For his blood has washed from the mind
our guilt of sin, and when we have repentance, purified are we of all guilt." 1 John 1
Islam is large and growing part of the world as it is, if we would know more how over one billion of our fellow men and women think, we should better understand Islam. If you would understand Judaism and Christianity, the obviously you should study Bible both New and Old testament, I own multiple copies of the Koran. Learn, study, think, and meditate upon those things that are pure and good. Avoid evil in all it's forms.
Pure Intuitive Genius.
If you are still in school I urge you to look up alternative presentations to what you are taught at school, in particular in your history and social science classes, and use your independently acquired knowledge to pose questions for your teachers. Particularly if you can come up with questions that are not considered politically correct. And come back to me after a week and tell me what happened in all honesty. Then I will test your honesty.
I like this mans security in his faith that he can post a Christian apologist so my friend I would also urge you to entertain another, david wood
God is love. And God must be consistent with His own nature (He cannot violate His own nature). Ergo, God cannot stop being God. Why? He is God. If evil is not a thing, but a wrong choice, and right is "right response to reality", then of course God can't sin. That doesn't mean He's not free.
If a creature is really free to say yes or no to the Creator's offer of love and spiritual marriage, then it must be possible for the creature to say no. Free will, in turn, was created out of God's love.
This is from the book Mere Christianity.... great book.
cs lewis is correct
There's a whole list of verses to cite for you. Matthew 10:28 "... fear rather Him who is able both soul and body to destroy in Gehenna." John 3:16 "Anyone who believes in Him will not die but will have eternal life." Malachi 4:1-3 "... and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."
and free will is what has made evil possible"
If free will is what makes evil possible, then how can one choose what cannot exist until it is freely chosen? In other words, if evil doesn't exist in the first place, how can one choose it? How can there even be a choice when the alternative doesn't exist?
who said evil is required for free will. in free will you have the freedom to be good or evil. our universe is already created with all the logic in it that enables us to live a normal life in our case. i have a question for you. in this universe we are supposed to prove ourselves. if it had no evil then why would we need to prove ourselves? another question why do you keep associating Earth and hell and not including heaven? the universe is a cup half filled and half empty choose the one u want
Without love of truth there can be no love.
It is surely quite difficult for Muslims to affirm free will, as the Christian C S Lewis does here. Most Muslim theologians have argued that God creates our acts and that we acquire them (kasb). This isn't what C S Lewis held.
Brilliant
Is it possible to do more good then evil? Out of curiosity what religion are you in?
How does this account for natural evil though?!
To all the people being butthurt about an Islamic channel using a video of CS. Lewis discussing the problem of evil, just remember that the Kalam argument for God's existence comes from Islamic thinkers.
What I find interesting is that the best you can do in response to my posts is to simply toss out a bunch of standard apologetic replies -- none of which substantively address anything I said or actually reply to any of my objections.
Yes, God told them not to eat from the fruit of the tree. But he told them *before" that had eaten of the fruit which gave them the ability to know right from wrong. I made this point very clearly.
But that would bring us to the very existence of reason itself, and whether is would constitute the shaping of morality.
Does God have free will ? If He does, can He also decide to be evil ? Or if God cannot be evil, does He then not have free will ?
Can we trust that God will always choose to be good? Why did God not make his creatures with the same nature that He has i.e. of possessing free will ( assuming He has free will ) yet not able to do bad ? Its too confusing, whatever !
Evaristo Blazquez
He has freewill but He cannot do things outside of His nature.
A lion has freewill but cannot fly... why? well it's not within His nature.
God has freewill but He can't fail nor can He lie... why?
It's not in His nature
@@paulwoodard494good answer!
@@rosarybead Actually, it's a terrible answer. Of course God has a completely free will and could do evil if he chose to, the fact that he never chooses to is what makes Him good. Any moral being constitutionally incapable of evil has a will that works in only one direction, therefore that being is incapable of acting in the two directions (good or evil) that are necessary for the determination of moral character in a moral being. How is it a part of OUR nature to do evil? Answer: its not, its a possibility as a consequence of free will allowed by God in order that virtue might also be a possibility.
Yes, we can trust that God will always choose to do good. Why? Because he doesn't just do it--- he created it. And he sent his Son to die for all sin so that every moral agent in the universe could get an idea about the seriousness of His stance on good and evil.
@@gregdiprinzio9280 the person I was referring to doesn't state that God has no free will. Read the comment properly. But he goes beyond and emphasises that it is against God's very nature to do any evil regardless of having free will! Because God is goodness, purity, perfection and holiness by his very nature or essence. That's what I understood from it and I agree and therefore said it was a good answer.
There is only one way to look at free will and that's exactly what the words imply, you are free to do as you will. There is no other meaning.
Hope springs eternal.
To be all powerful I argue you would have to have free will in order to choose what is best otherwise there is no best. There only is.
Justice demands that sin be punished; our good deeds can’t remove the penalty. Christians realize we’ve broken God’s law but in his mercy & grace, he allowed Jesus to pay for our sin by taking our punishment on himself, as a substitute. If we accept his gift we face no wrath. Hell Is forever & it’s a choice we make when we reject God’s provision for payment. By doing so WE choose hell. He doesn’t punish US for rejecting Him, He punishes sin. But neither will he force us to spend eternity w/ him.
You cannot have freedom of choice without the outcomes that go with it, but man often wants precisely that.
Where is this from? This is not CS Lewis' voice - so I would love to see a quotation...
Also, for the record, the trolls here are pretty arrogant and stupid when they criticize someone committed to Islam for agreeing with a Christian on something. In thinking about God, there are many ways in which Christianity and Islam agree. Monotheism for one. Yes, we disagree on a ton...but a lot of our apologetics are good for one another to think well about God.
this
(cont'd) (2) So could they do both wrong and evil prior to God having told them about eating the fruit, since they'd neither been told about the fruit, nor eaten it -- though they were made perfect?
If they were made perfect, why did God have to tell them not to eat the fruit? And if he'd made them perfect, why would they then eat it?
And what exactly is the difference between doing good and doing right and doing wrong and doing evil?
Can it ever be right to do evil, or good to do wrong?
Not without being influenced, simply by being influenced in a neutral, unbiased, open-minded way.