Do Humans Have Free Will?

This is part two in my discussion with Dmitri regarding purported contradictions in the Bible. Part One was published last week.

Clearly, from my response to the last question, you know what my answer to this is going to be. Yes, most certainly, and this is the very point of human life. Without free will, we cannot love the Creator. This question is tricky because it is one on which Christians are divided. Some Calvinists deny free will, and hold that only those God specifically chooses to save can be saved, while everyone else is, by God's command, damned, and their own will has nothing to do with this. Others (such as the Catholic Church and myself) see this viewpoint as heresy. Given that this issue has proponents within the Christian Church, it is understandably a bit murky. Let's see, however, if we can part the waters.

Does God Ever Lie?

The following comes from a series of emails between Dmitri and I regarding this poster and the claims it makes about supposed contradictions in the Bible. In the interest of brevity (that's how you spell laziness, right?) I had Mr. Dragonofski pick his top three choices, to which I would give my best response. He went with.

Does God ever lie? num 23:19, 1sam 15:29, 7:28, titus 1:2, heb 6:18 ≠ 1ki 22:23, 2chron 18:22, jer 4:10, 20:7, ezk 14:9, 2thes 2:11
Do humans have free will? deut 30:19, jos 24:15 ≠ acts 13:48, rom 8:29-30, 9:11-22, eph 1:4-5, 2thes 2:11-12, 2tim 1:9, jude 4
Do Christians need to obey Old Testament laws? gen 17:19, exo 12:14, 17, 24, lev 23:14, 21, 31, deut 4:8-9, 7:9, 11:1, 11:26-28, 1chron 16:15, ps 119:151-2, 119:160, mal 4:4, mat 5:18-19, lk 16:17 ≠ lk 16:16, rom 6:14, 7:4, 6, 10:4, 2cor 3:14, gal 3:13, 3:24-25, 5:18, eph 2:15, col 2:14

I responded to the first as follows. 

God doesn't lie, nor does the Bible say otherwise. The verses referenced to attempt to say otherwise fall into three categories: actions of other beings with God's consent, accusations made of God by others, and the inevitable requirement of free will. None of these things make God a liar.

Idolatry: Hidden but not Harmless

Possibly the most pervasive and dangerous sin in today's world is idolatry. Other sins may be bolder, more in our faces, more glamorous, but it is idolatry that saps the majority of our spiritual strength away right from the heart. If you think yourself immune, then you, more than anyone else, need to read on.

The primary pitfall of idolatry is how easily it slips our notice. Of all of our sins, it is the one we are most likely to justify: to consider to be simply a priority or a preference and not the paramount spiritual danger which it is. We make excuses for the worldly things that eclipse God in our devotion, seeing nothing wrong at all with the way we push Him to the sidelines.

Phyla

There has long been an unfortunate confusion between making distinctions of phylum and performing science. Science, of course, is the practice of determining natural laws via testable, falsifiable hypotheses. Science says that a bear has x number of chromosomes.

Making phylum, on the other hand, is a means of characterizing and speaking about our discoveries. It does not discriminate between true and false, testable or not testable, and falsifiable or not falsifiable, it merely shows that a distinction is conceivable. Thus the phylum "bear" is distinguished from others by a set of common characteristics not shared by outsiders. In turn, differences between individuals in the phylum "bear" are conceptually deemphasized.

Cannibalism and Catholicism?

A recent apologetics segment on the local Catholic radio station (It's staticy, but good) struck me. The topic was a Protestant charge that transubstantiation amounts to cannibalism. While the charge might be a marginal one, and the on air talent gave it as much time as it is worth, I found the illogic of the charge to be worthy of examining in its own right. Why? Well, lets dig in!