Does God Exist?

[Essence]

"He is unwilling that ANY should perish"

See, there you immediately get into the big logical tangle of omnipotence vs. omnibenevolence.  You really can't have both; you either have to curtail the benevolence and say "well, He wants us to CHOOSE to live forever (by following His laws and having faith in His son) and he CHOOSES not to force us to do so (because free will is more important to him than our living forever -- which is a failure of omnibenevolence)" -- or you have to curtail the omnipotence and say "well, He wants us to live forever, but our free will gets in the way and we CHOOSE not to (which is a failure of omnipotence)". 

If God is unwilling that any should perish, than none should perish.  That's pretty much the definition of "God wills it."
Fiat lux and all that, right?

[King of Traffic]

/thread
Yes, or at least i believe.The "coincidence" between hands, left ear, and his name was more than enough.

[Avenger]

"He is unwilling that ANY should perish"

If God is unwilling that any should perish, than none should perish.  That's pretty much the definition of "God wills it."
Fiat lux and all that, right?

Ok. Lets say it is free will that causes our (premature) death. So, who (which mortal) caused the latest earthquake in Haiti?
Or, we should interpret free will like: no one forced them (the haitian victims) to live in an earthquake prone area?

If God exists, then
1. he is not omnipotent because he allowed the earthquake to happen
or
2. he is not benevolent, because he caused the earthquake.

Even if the earthquake was inevitable due to some 'greater good', He could have given a warning via a miracle.

[vrt]

Just my two cents:

God is all-knowing. According to the Bible, he knows future and past. This, however, means that choices I make were already predetermined by God. Therefor, freedom of choice in life is non-existant. By this logic, if God exists, he made me an atheist.

[Demagog]

Just my two cents:

God is all-knowing. According to the Bible, he knows future and past. This, however, means that choices I make were already predetermined by God. Therefor, freedom of choice in life is non-existant. By this logic, if God exists, he made me an atheist.

You left out that he also gave man free will. Isn't it possible that he knows how everything will play out, regardless of the choices you make? For instance, you have a choice to wear red or yellow today. He knows what will happen regardless of which color you choose.

[vrt]

Just my two cents:

God is all-knowing. According to the Bible, he knows future and past. This, however, means that choices I make were already predetermined by God. Therefor, freedom of choice in life is non-existant. By this logic, if God exists, he made me an atheist.

You left out that he also gave man free will. Isn't it possible that he knows how everything will play out, regardless of the choices you make? For instance, you have a choice to wear red or yellow today. He knows what will happen regardless of which color you choose.

He also knows that the shirt is red. Ergo, no choice, no free will.

[Demagog]

That makes no sense. He knows the color of all your shirts. Regardless of which one you choose to wear, he knows what the effects of that choice will be.

[vrt]

If he is all-knowing, he also knows what I will do. If he doesn't, then he isn't all-knowing. If he does, free choice is nonexistant.

[cthulhu]

The problem with gods is if they exist and are omnipotent, then as an idea they would be incomprehensible to humans, ergo you can't know if they exist or not. So just believe what you wish, it doesn't really matter.

[Essence]

There is nothing about omniscience that implies a lack of free will.  As a father, I know exactly what my child will do if I give him an apple: he'll eat it.  I know this, because I know my child.  But there is nothing about my knowledge that denies him free will.  That's absurd. 

[vrt]

There is nothing about omniscience that implies a lack of free will.  As a father, I know exactly what my child will do if I give him an apple: he'll eat it.  I know this, because I know my child.  But there is nothing about my knowledge that denies him free will.  That's absurd.

That's prediction based on knowledge, not knowledge. Nice try though, I'll give you that.

[Daxx]

Actually, strictly speaking the existence of omniscience doesn't rule out the existence of free will, unless you make the definitional mistake of asserting that simply because an outcome is known, that that outcome is pre-determined. This isn't the case because you can have knowledge of a non-determined event simply by violating causality (think about a universe where non-paradoxical time travel is possible, for example), which is trivial for something that is truly omniscient.

Not that free will exists, but I shouldn't even be posting in this forum section until I get more time so I'll leave that point for now.