Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think!mintaka!mit-eddie!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: sandrock@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Mark T. Sandrock) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Random thoughts on free will, etc. Message-ID: Date: 21 Dec 89 05:12:20 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 42 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article st0o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Steven Timm) writes: >The moderator (clh) made some interesting thoughts on the topic of who >is responsible for sin in a message earlier in this thread. While I don't >believe that God necessarily intended sin to happen, a vital point was raised >on the responsibility of God. > >Suffering was not part of God's original plan. We know that God can overrule >suffering if He chooses to. If we believe that God is the supreme Being of >the universe, and yet suffering still occurs, we see that the buck stops with >God. We need to become clear regarding the gift of free will we have received from the Creator, and the absolute responsibility we thus have for everything we think and say and do. GOD is PERFECT, and therefore HIS Creation must also be perfect!!! So what does this tell us? That the responsibility for suffering *must* lie completely and entirely with *man himself* and not with GOD. To take a small, but perhaps useful example: When we are careless, and burn our hand on something very hot, should we blame GOD for creating us careless? Or blame HIM for creating heat? No! We have to recognize that the suffering is due to our own fault, and the suffering actually contains a lesson for us, whereby we can learn and grow as human beings and which helps us to learn to recognize GOD's WILL in Creation. Surely we have heard of the person who asked: "Where was GOD at Auschwitz?" The simple (and true) reply: "Where was *man* at Auschwitz?" We are still to ready to place blame and responsibility always outside ourselves, on anyone else, even on GOD. However, to mature as human beings means to learn to accept full responsibility for all we experience in life, and not to first want to blame the others. I am a reader of the Grail Message, "In the Light of Truth", by Abd-ru-shin. Best Wishes! Mark Sandrock UIUC School of Chemical Sciences