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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 6/30/2003 8:46 AM (GMT -6) |   | You have a group of 100 people. Each of those people has their own personal sensory deprivation tank. You give people the choice: they can stay outside of the tanks and interact with you and each another more and more…OR…they can choose to isolate themselves more and more, the culmination of which would be to get into the sensory deprivation tank and be completely by themselves.
Now, what you want is for some of the people to CHOOSE basically interact with you and other in a loving manner, such that there is a group of people who have freely chosen to interact with you. You want freely chosen interaction. You also want people to actually experience real consequences for their actions. Most of all, you would REALLY, REALLY like it if EVERYONE interacted with you and each other. You also know enough about human beings to know that we NEED community and interaction. You know that the type of isolation that ends up in the sensory deprivation tanks leads to dysfunction and ultimately death. So, you know that ultimately interaction with you and others would be best for all people concerned, all things considered.
People start choosing. Long story short, you actually have about 40 people that actually end up in the deprivation tanks of their OWN free wills. You begged and pleaded with these people before hand…but it was no use. The made their choices. Over time, you notice their psychological deterioration. It’s absolutely HORRIBLE to witness. Now you have to power to just OPEN any of the tanks at will, regardless to what the people might say. Four of them have deteriorated so bad, they are almost feral.
Note that:
1) You have what you wanted. You have a group of people who have FREELY chosen to interact with you and others.
2) You do have the power and ability to set those people free.
3) You enabled those people to have REAL consequences for their actions.
4) You realize that they acted CONTRARY to what is most healthy for human beings in this self-imposed exile.
Question:
As a loving being who truly wants ALL 100 people to have some type of interaction with you and others who finds himself in this situation, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? What do you feel that any loving being would do in this situation?
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 6/30/2003 3:04 PM (GMT -6) | | I would love them enough to respect their right to choose.
Starkman
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John Earp
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2002
Total Posts : 1715
| Posted 6/30/2003 4:58 PM (GMT -6) | | Free will is not free if it is taken away because of its exercise. In other words, if people choose to reject God, the consequences are of their own making (for God alone is the source of LIFE), just as a person who commits suicide is alone responsible for their final act of self-destruction.
The idea that the eternal conscious torment of the wicked presents a less-than-loving God in my opinion misses the point. It is basically no different than saying a government that prosecutes its criminals is somehow unjust.
"The Discovery of new truth will modify old views and opinions, and there is perhaps no end to this process with finite minds in any world." Charles G. Finney, Systematic Theology.
revivaltheology.net
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 6/30/2003 5:29 PM (GMT -6) | | | So in other words, both of y'all would let those 40 people deteriorate into horrific depersonalization...because they made their own choices. Ok. Cool. | | Back to Top | | |
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John Earp
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2002
Total Posts : 1715
| Posted 6/30/2003 6:17 PM (GMT -6) | | quote:
So in other words, both of y'all would let those 40 people deteriorate into horrific depersonalization...because they made their own choices. Ok. Cool.
I agree it has to do with free will; however, I think the second aspect I alluded to must also be kept in mind--hell is justice. All sin deserves hell. All sin is a knowing, willful CRIME against God and all that is good, righteous, and loving. I wonder sometimes if we truly understand the nature of sin and its gravity.
"The Discovery of new truth will modify old views and opinions, and there is perhaps no end to this process with finite minds in any world." Charles G. Finney, Systematic Theology.
revivaltheology.net
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