REB, there may be a "choice" given to us, but it is the choice of either Join God/Jesus or Eternal Damnation. Makes me wonder if we have any free will, if
things are pre-ordanied.

What about Judas? Did he actually have free will? I actually had an argument about this as a kid with my priest (oh yeah, they loved me - especially on the evolution subject) about this: If Jesus had already forseen Judas as the one who would betray him, what's a fella to do? Yes, I suppose Judas could have Just Said No, but it was already prophesized that he would betray Jesus so that the Son of God could be crucified for our sins. Can't help but think that Judas was set up to be the fall guy.

But I guess I better stop thinking about this, as I was finally advized, cause if God says that's the way it is, who am I to argue?

I just tend to get "agitated" when so-called authority figures do something I question and they tell me that they know what they are doing and to stop asking questions about it. Make me kinda suspicious, ya know what I mean?

So if we have no actual free will and everything is pre-ordained, what the heck good does it do those who have no actual choice in the way their lives are going?

Yeah, maybe this is all Philosophy 101, but funny how the same questions keep coming back and nagging at us.

Maybe I just don't like the idea of being in a Universe run by a being who would essentially force lives to suffer eternally while still saying they had a choice when they really didn't. If Judas hadn't betrayed Christ, would someone else have been made to do the job? It seems like the religious leaders of that time and place had it in for him any way, so it may just have been a matter of time, betrayer or no. I still think Judas got a bum rap; and the poor guy, he was so upset afterwards that he killed himself - a double whammy on his soul!

And the whole thing with Satan: As I retold in an earlier post, one Christian fundamentalist minister said Satan was created by God to trip up the less than faithful. So did Satan have a choice in his future employment? How good is God to have made someone so evil and destructive to harm those he claims to love?

Guess I better stop now - there's a big black cloud headed my way....