God's Will

The idea of the will of God has got to be one of the most confusing parts about Christianity. Seriously. It is one of the things that always bugged me when I was a Christian and it is one of those things I worked very hard to reconcile. This idea of God's will. 

Predeterminism.

There's this whole narrative around everything being predetermined and part of God's divine plan. We are taught that nothing happens that isn't a part of God's plan. We are taught that everything happens for a reason. EVERYTHING. This raises some interesting questions one of which is, why do we pray? What good does it do to pray if the decision has already been made about what is going to happen? If God changed his plan according to humans simply requesting that he do so, then his plan isn't divine and everything doesn't happen for a reason. If God changes his plan, it changes the eventual outcome. See, the thing about predeterminism is, that in order for prophecies to be fulfilled, everything leading up to the fulfillment of the prophecy must happen exactly according to plan. If you change the course of the plan, the outcome changes as well. If everything is indeed predetermined then it renders prayer unnecessary. Of course all good Christians know that the true reason for prayer is not just to ask for favors, it is to remind God how great he is. God's favorite thing is having his ego stroked. Everyone knows that.

We are also told that God gave humans free will. 

We are taught that God created us, but he can't (nor does he want to) force us to love him. He has given humans the will to choose whether or not they want to follow him. I mean if they choose wrong it's eternal lake of fire. But, hey. They have a choice. And they are expected to make the "right one" with no discernable evidence. If God exists and we are supposed to figure out he exists without any evidence when he is PERFFECTLY CAPABLE of showing us just like he did for those lucky dogs in the Bible yet if we don't figure it out or can't believe he sends us to hell forever? Then he is not a loving God. He's a prick.

The thing that always stumped me about the idea of free will is how it relates back to that "everything happens for a reason," trope. Remember, nothing happens that isn't part of God's plan. Well, if everything that happens, happens as a part of a predetermined plan, then there can be no such thing as free will. If God already knows which decision I will make and where that decision leads me before I make it, then he predetermined the decision and I really had no say in it at all. See?

Likewise, if I do in fact have free will then that would mean God is not omnipotent. It would mean there is no divine plan. Because in a world where everyone is free to choose and ask for all kinds of things in prayer and things are constantly changing then there is no way to steer the divine plan and there is no way for prophecies to be fulfilled.

This is one of the issues that felt so good to not have to think about and consider anymore, after letting go of religion. I don't have to keep trying to make sense out of this nonsense. Prophecies are not real. Prophets are not being spoken to by God, they are talking to themselves. You see it over and over every time someone predicts the end of the world or the Qanon people expect the STORM to happen. It's all bullshit. The reason it can't be reconciled is because it's not real. It's all make believe.  

Prophecies are a power trip. The people who make and stand behind them (we have seen a lot of them lately regarding the outcome of the 2020 election) will preach out of one side of their mouth that everything happens according to God's plan and that he is in control. And then when things don't pan out the way they want and their prophecy is shown to be bullshit they scream out of the other side of their mouth that SATAN has won! What!? If everything happens for a reason, then this outcome was what God wanted. The brainwashing in American Christianity is second to none.