Everything happens for a reason or free will?

[HiddenMe]

This is one area about God, I truly cannot understand. Does everything happen the way it is supposed to or our choices depict our future?
For example, I always thought my sister getting pregnant in high school was in God's plan for her. There's a lot of good that has came out of it but bad too. However, my Dad said it wasn't in God's plan...
What do y'all think? Does everything happen for a reason or what? How do we ever know if we are in line with God's plan for us?

 

[durangodawood]

Teenage pregnancies are usually no ones plan, in my opinion.

They are mainly the result of our outrageous hornyness at that age.

 

[Ana the Ist]

This is one area about God, I truly cannot understand. Does everything happen the way it is supposed to or our choices depict our future?
For example, I always thought my sister getting pregnant in high school was in God's plan for her. There's a lot of good that has came out of it but bad too. However, my Dad said it wasn't in God's plan...
What do y'all think? Does everything happen for a reason or what? How do we ever know if we are in line with God's plan for us?

I don't believe in god, so obviously I don't believe in a "god's plan" of any sort. I'd like to think free will exists...I'm just not entirely sure of that. Someone once explained determinism to me pretty well and it sounded possible. I guess I'd have to say there's a solid 50/50 chance that we have free will.

Tell ya what...I'll flip a coin and if it's heads, we have free will...if it's tails, we don't.

Ready?

 

[Chany]

I, also, do not believe in a divine will, but even if I did, I would be a deist because I am a determinist.

Defining free will as the metaphysical capability to, given specific past and present causes, do something other than one option:

Free will is an illusion. Things are merely effects of previous causes, including humans. It's simply a matter of asking "why did I feel this way" or "why did I choose this over that?" Eventually, it gets to the point of something outside of your control causing you to act the way you did.

 

[quatona]

Tell ya what...I'll flip a coin and if it's heads, we have free will...if it's tails, we don't.

You either are predestined to believe in free will, or you choose to believe there´s no free will.

 

[quatona]

For example, I always thought my sister getting pregnant in high school was in God's plan for her. There's a lot of good that has came out of it but bad too. However, my Dad said it wasn't in God's plan...

Why is that an important question for you? What implications would either answer have, for any intent or purpose?

 

[dysert]

This is one area about God, I truly cannot understand. Does everything happen the way it is supposed to or our choices depict our future?
For example, I always thought my sister getting pregnant in high school was in God's plan for her. There's a lot of good that has came out of it but bad too. However, my Dad said it wasn't in God's plan...
What do y'all think? Does everything happen for a reason or what? How do we ever know if we are in line with God's plan for us?

These are very good questions. Some that I wonder about myself. As for the particular instance of someone getting pregnant outside of marriage, though, I'd have to say that was not God's plan. God does not condone sin (which premarital sex is), so even though good has come from that I'm sure God was not involved in the sin. Apparently, though, He has been involved since the sin by forming good out of the evil.

I still wonder, though, if everything that happens is for a divine reason, or if things sometimes happen that have no reason behind them (e.g., the tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, etc.). I hope more discussion will take place about your questions.

 

[durangodawood]

These are very good questions. Some that I wonder about myself. As for the particular instance of someone getting pregnant outside of marriage, though, I'd have to say that was not God's plan. God does not condone sin (which premarital sex is), so even though good has come from that I'm sure God was not involved in the sin. Apparently, though, He has been involved since the sin by forming good out of the evil.

I still wonder, though, if everything that happens is for a divine reason, or if things sometimes happen that have no reason behind them (e.g., the tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, etc.). I hope more discussion will take place about your questions.

So are you say the whole direction of the world since the "fall of man" is a radical deviation from God's Plan?

 

[dysert]

So are you say the whole direction of the world since the "fall of man" is a radical deviation from God's Plan?

(Why do I feel an ambush coming? ;-)

I wouldn't say the *whole* direction; and overall, God's Plan will still prevail. I just don't think it will prevail in the way He would have preferred. For example, I doubt it was God's intention that mankind fall away from Him, but He provided a way so that we could be reconciled to Him.

 

[durangodawood]

(Why do I feel an ambush coming? ;-)

I wouldn't say the *whole* direction; and overall, God's Plan will still prevail. I just don't think it will prevail in the way He would have preferred. For example, I doubt it was God's intention that mankind fall away from Him, but He provided a way so that we could be reconciled to Him.

Seems more of an improvisation than a plan.

Right out the gate, things go haywire in Eden. So, if God does have a plan, its clear that we can behave in ways that stymie his plan.

 

[Standing_Ultraviolet]

There are a lot of different answers to this within the range of Christian theology. Most denominations believe that there is some sort of mutual harmony between free will and God's plan. Basically, that things aren't determinstic and that God doesn't in any way cause people to sin, but that God knows everything that will happen and allows it to happen the way that it does. There are also some that accept schools of thought like open theism, which is the idea that God knows everything, but that since the future hasn't happened yet, God can't logically know it beyond a possibility or probability. That is obviously a very controversial view, though.

As for me? I think that everything happens because it's more probable than not that it will eventually happen. Probably not a very satisfying view, but yeah.

 

[jayem]

This is one area about God, I truly cannot understand. Does everything happen the way it is supposed to or our choices depict our future?

I'm not a theist, so I don't believe in any kind of supernatural god that plans, or controls events.

I also don't believe in absolute free will. We do make our choices in life. But if I was in exactly the same set of circumstances at 2 different times--and all the neural circuitry in my brain was in an identical state--I would make exactly the same choice each time. However, as long as I'm alive, my neural pathways are always changing--constantly forming and reforming in response to sensory input. The chance that my brain will be in exactly the same state at 2 different times is vanishingly small. So this gives me an apparent, or relative free will. But it's not absolute. Am I stating this clearly?

 

[dysert]

Seems more of an improvisation than a plan.

Right out the gate, things go haywire in Eden. So, if God does have a plan, its clear that we can behave in ways that stymie his plan.

Well I certainly wouldn't use the word "stymie". His plan, whatever it is, will be accomplished regardless of what we do. There will be a Second Coming, there will be a Judgment, there will be a new heaven and new earth, etc. Was my putting on this particular pair of socks this morning part of that plan? I rather doubt it. Was Billy Graham's overwhelming evangelistic success part of the plan? Probably.

I guess the point I'm coming to is that we can't thwart God's plan, but not everything that happens is necessarily a part of it.

 

[HiddenMe]

Why is that an important question for you? What implications would either answer have, for any intent or purpose?

Because I'm wondering if the things im doing like college, bf, working, are in God's plan for me or am I going the wrong way

 

[HiddenMe]

Well I certainly wouldn't use the word "stymie". His plan, whatever it is, will be accomplished regardless of what we do. There will be a Second Coming, there will be a Judgment, there will be a new heaven and new earth, etc. Was my putting on this particular pair of socks this morning part of that plan? I rather doubt it. Was Billy Graham's overwhelming evangelistic success part of the plan? Probably.

I guess the point I'm coming to is that we can't thwart God's plan, but not everything that happens is necessarily a part of it.

Lol putting on those socks had a reason, you see, you used it to prove your point.... So this is a paradox...

 

[dysert]

Lol putting on those socks had a reason, you see, you used it to prove your point.... So this is a paradox...

You got me

 

[J0SHUA]

The Bible mentions nothing about free will. Yes, those things are according to God's will. Nobody has the ability to escape God's will. Don't worry about it unless you are feeling convictions.

 

[dysert]

The Bible mentions nothing about free will. Yes, those things are according to God's will. Nobody has the ability to escape God's will. Don't worry about it unless you are feeling convictions.

I wouldn't be quite so dogmatic about that. There are plenty of verses that *imply* that we have free will. Just do a quick NT search on the word "whosoever" (KJV). It appears we have choices about lots of things.

 

[Soul2Soul]

This is one area about God, I truly cannot understand. Does everything happen the way it is supposed to or our choices depict our future?
For example, I always thought my sister getting pregnant in high school was in God's plan for her. There's a lot of good that has came out of it but bad too. However, my Dad said it wasn't in God's plan...
What do y'all think? Does everything happen for a reason or what? How do we ever know if we are in line with God's plan for us?

Can I ask ..... what do you think is God's plan for us?

 

[J0SHUA]

I wouldn't be quite so dogmatic about that. There are plenty of verses that *imply* that we have free will. Just do a quick NT search on the word "whosoever" (KJV). It appears we have choices about lots of things.

I see what you're saying, since almost every synergist uses "choice" and verses like Joshua 24:15 as evidence for free will, but I've never understood this view. Choices have nothing to do with free will. I chose to get out of bed this morning, but that has no relation to whether it was a free will choice or God's predestining.