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Re: Radio Satan




>From: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>Reply-To: "Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>
>CC: Over the Rhine listserv <Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com>
>Subject: Re: Radio Satan
>Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 23:07:01 -0700 (PDT)
>
>On Mon, 20 May 2002, ryan richards wrote:
> > You know, the great thing about free will is that the Christianknows
> > it's out there and can truly choose it and live it whereas the     
>atheist, because of his/her deterministic world view, has to try and 
>conjure it up.
>
>
Peter wrote:

How does the Christian know it's out there?..............
>Feeling dizzy yet?  :)


Ryan replied:

First and foremost, I have been living in a state of vertigo for so many 
years that dizziness for me seems kind of natural so believe it or not I 
could easily follow all of the above.  The Christian knows it's out there 
because that's pretty much the whole point of his/her being here- that is to 
love God and enjoy Him forever (the chief end of man don't cha know) which 
can only truly be done through an act of free will.  Sorry, but "small 
wonder" cannot truly love her parents no matter how good her programmer was. 
  In fact, if you really want to get deep into this shit I view human 
existence as a kind of experiment in free will- and the unwitting guinea 
pigs we may very well be.  Never the less, this is our lot in the harsh 
scope of Theology.  Now, do we need the grace of God to do what's right?  
I've seen many a humanist do what's right with no benefit to themselves and 
they certainly didn't ask for the grace of God and then I assume did not 
receive the grace of God to do the deed.  Think of a Peace Corps volunteer 
and what they accomplish under humanistic principles and with no external 
reward.  I think there are instances were one would probably need the grace 
of God in order to do the right thing because of fear or some such 
inhibitor.  I have personally been in such situations and can attest that I 
couldn't have accomplished said deed without the influence/inspiration or 
whatever of a higher authority.  Now important part.  Did God's grace force 
me to act or did that grace happen within my choice to act?- my personal 
experience was that of the latter.  I never sensed the courage to do what I 
thought was impossible task at the time until I actually started to do it.
     As far as your craving for a chocolate bar goes and the philosophical 
journey that ensued I personally think you took the easy way out by taking 
the bus on home.  Because you knew there would be a definate negative 
consequence for your action I think it would have been a definite exercise 
in free will for you to have done so, because pain and the avoidence thereof 
is the greatest prompter of the will (in my experience and what I have 
observed in others as well as read about).

Must quit here for now but stay tuned.
>


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