Why did God give us free will?

[Anonymous]

God made it so people can do whatever they want the most violent and vile stuff on the planet. Why does God allow this?

[normalice]

There isn't a god. Sorry. I know a lot of people hang a lot of their sense of security on the assumption that someone all powerful is in control of it all and knows what he is doing, but the far more likely situation we are in is quite simply this: we are alone. We are alone in the universe (or at best equals with some alien species). There is no physical possibility for an entity greater than us by the orders of magnitude it would take to qualify as a god: that is, no one in the universe can do magic. It is all the same laws of physics throughout the universe, relentlessly governing every infinitesimal speck of it. We can use our sentience to figure out those laws and exploit them, but we can't change them. And there is no requirement, by those laws, that any creature exist who can change them. So, in all likelihood they don't.

What we think of as free will is just a failure to comprehend why we are predictable. In the end, people will always choose the thing that makes them feel better. For some there's a bit of a whack-a-mole over which feelings they are trying to placate, for others one feeling my act as a trunk for all the other feelings. But the ongoing quest we have to figure out how to feel what we want to feel usually just ends up being a pursuit of validation - which is interesting because that can only be provided by others. It would make sense that it would have to, though: We would have evolved a need to be around each other when we evolved the need to reproduce sexually. But with sentience just an animal attraction to smell or whatever isn't going to cut it. You have to start having a >reason< you do what you do - a reason you should choose what you choose. That "looking for a reason" eventually became it's own solution as we just looked for others to provide us with "The Reason." Now we're attracted to each other >and< we "get a reason" in the form of other people assuring us there must be one. Two birds one stone. The more people who tell and with a bigger variety of feelings behind it creates a sort of pointilist's mirage of A Reason. So, a sort of addiction to hearing that there is a reason from others emerged and that's how we grew the instinct to seek validation.

Anyway, occasionally someone comes along with either a nonexistent or completely warped sense of what qualifies as validation. Enormous heaps of money, for example. We who work for a living see billionaires as weird children playing around with a toy demigod mask, coercing us into pretending it is real. But the billionaire, though an awful person, is still looking for that validation all the same: pretend my god mask is real. A hideously warped definition of validation and as a result they engage in some of the most reckless behavior possible.

[JustiReno]

I disagree, I believe in god but I never believed in a anthropomorphic god, but a personal relationship with “god” yes. I believe this through my experience in combat, combat is intention in its purest form

[normalice]

I understand why someone would want to believe in a god under any circumstance, including yours - to counterbalance not just the chaos with the promise of future order but also the lifelessness with imagined life - however, sadly just having a valid need for something doesn't mean it has been called into existence. Death is the great equalizer. 100% of the people who purport to wield it for whatever economic security of their superiors will also die - the only solace to be the brief amount of time before that they can spend imagining themselves safe and powerful.

But, ultimately despair is an imagined problem and so an imagined solution is perfectly capable of keeping it at bay. It just doesn't work for me, personally. People say ignorance bliss and this is what they mean - Nine inch nails once wrote a song Happiness in Slavery with much the same sentiments. But people act like ignorance is a bad thing, and it is for most things, but not for this. A lot of people react badly to this sort of information, and why shouldn't they? What incentive there is to take it in stride can only ever amount to just being a decent person, which will have the same outcome as being an asshole - both just as dead and their legacy, if any, taken completely out of their hands within a mere 100 years or so.

[JustiReno]

It just comes from experience, not wanting to at all, just see it with my own eyes is all. I don’t believe in life after death, that’s different, I don’t believe in a messiah, that’s different, and I don’t think your idea of God is just my Super Ego, I don’t, but I could be wrong.

[normalice]

What experience? What even is "God" then? If they have no authority over the rules that govern reality, they're just an imaginary friend, at that point.

[jshm2]

Because God may have written the script of your life, but it's you that gets the Oscar or Wooden spoon for how good or bad you did.

You need to remember that the average lifespan of a person is but a millisecond when compared to the eternal. No one can have done that much good in their life to deserve anything. Hence it's more a measure of how much bad each person has done, and how forgivable it was.

[SecretsofKB]

If god gave us free will, it isn't exactly free will. Free will by design is still designed.

[Mrnobody1r]

Why did God create unnecessary dinosaurs? Why did God send so many religions and make people kill each other? Why is God a son of a bitch? Because it doesn't actually exist, but people always need a god.

[Mrnobody1r]

Even if one of them is real, this leads to the emergence of imitations, which means war. Is our god a fool or is he just enjoying it?

[BCRanger10]

Because if He did not, then He would be the tyrant that many today often accuse Him of being.

Besides, is it not better to choose to do good when others choose to do evil?

[Kaneki05]

There is no such as Free will nor god so... if you ever think about that and figure out how this makes sense then we'll talk.

[Kaneki05]

Thing*

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

The purpose of free will is to glorify God. God gave us and all His angels free will because God gets glory from it.

We can use our free will for good or evil. It's up to use to choose good instead of evil.

[andreasderjuengere]

I see it as a part of the test we are exposed to.

Some will fail it; others will get a reward.

Nothing's for free.

[NamerOfStars]

Because good is meaningless without the choice to do otherwise.

[BungusHighFivePizza]

boredom
if u know what will happen u can't be surprised

[Anonymous]

Hmm do we even have free will or is it all an illusion? I think that's a more important question before delving into whether a deity granted us free will.

[animesenpai]

God didn't give us anything we have free will because we are living beings nothing more nothing less

[sawno]

Without free will life has no meaning.