From: towfiq@FTP.COM (Mark Towfiq)
Subject: Re: Why is Free Will so neccessary?
Reply-To: towfiq@FTP.COM
Organization: FTP Software, Inc., Wakefield, MA
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 00:11:32 GMT

  Please mail, as well as post, responses to me, as I will be gone for
a week, and might miss what you say...

>>>>> On Mon, 30 Mar 92 17:12:54 PST, davidch@zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU
>>>>> (David Choweller) said:

mt>   To appreciate Light, the *potential* for Darkness must exist.
mt> Likewise for Hot and Cold, Strength and Weakness, and other such
mt> concepts.  This is the concept of Free Will.  In order for a person to
mt> do good, the potential for doing bad must exist.  You could not even
mt> speak of "Good" and "Evil" if this potential did not exist!

dc> Why is it necessary to appreciate Light, or Good? 

  You are taking as an *axiom* of your inquiry this idea--you are
asking "why did God create suffering" from the point of view that you
would only like good things to be in the world.  I am trying to
explain to you that without the potential for bad things, there is no
such thing as "good".

dc> Are you saying all the suffering in the world is justified by the
dc> need to appreciate Light, or Good?

  The suffering in the world is not justifiable--it is abominable, and
must end.  You are confusing the potential for something to happen
with its actual occurance.

mt>   So, the reason for evil in the world is not God's creation of
mt> it, but rather man's exercise of potential to do it.

dc> This does not answer my question.  My question was : "Why Free Will?"
dc> What you said in the above two lines is that the reason for evil
dc> in the world is man's exercise of Free Will.

  Yes.

dc> But WHY do we need Free Will?  Why is it so important?  Why is it
dc> so important, that we must admit the possibility of horrendous
dc> evil occurring in order to obtain it?  This is my question.

  This is for God to test His servants.  God could have created
everyone a believer, but He chose not to.  But please also note that
same God insists that this world is not an end, but a beginning, and
that upon death here we are released like a bird from a cage to a
different plane.  Accepting only part of what God says about existance
makes for a very bleak one indeed.

dc> I cannot cherish a universe which allows such horrible suffering
dc> for some stupid ideal called Free Will.  The wisdom in the
dc> universe as you described it escapes me.

  What if you found out that God has "made abasement the garment of
glory"?  In other words, that it is through suffering that one attains
a higher spiritual station, and that the life we spend on this plane
is fleeting and ephemeral?

dc> O.K., now you're saying that Free will is necessary to develop the
dc> spiritual faculties to adequately recognize God.  So basically,
dc> God is allowing all this despicable evil so that we can recognize
dc> him spiritually!  What a collossal waste of life and time.  What a
dc> mean egotistical creator this suggests!

  Only if you focus on this part of the message, and ignore the
promises that this is a world of illusion, and that the real world is
the spiritual world.

   O SON OF MY HANDMAID!  Didst thou behold immortal sovereignty, thou
   wouldst strive to pass from this fleeting world.  But to conceal
   the one from thee and to reveal the other is a mystery which none
   but the pure in heart can comprehend.
		   -- The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah
--
Mark Towfiq, FTP Software, towfiq@FTP.COM, W:+1 617 224 6275, H:+1 617 488 2818