It is certainly possible for God to influence our beliefs through indirect and discrete means without the cost of our free will. However, they underestimate the magnitude of the decision to believe in God. If everyone on earth were influenced, persuaded, or manipulated to believe in God, then every aspect of our lives would be drastically different. Every choice would be motivated by a belief or an acceptance of knowledge we did not have a choice in accepting. Suppose you go to the doctors for a regular checkup. You are at peak physical condition, you eat well, and have never smoked or drank alcohol in your life. However, your doctor informs you in ten years you will die from a rare genetic heart disease. While at first you do not believe this is possible, he provides evidence for his findings, and you believe him. While it is entirely up to you to believe this diagnosis given such evidence, how you live the next and last ten years of your life will revolve around this decision that the doctor has persuaded you to believe. What will you eat for dinner knowing in ten years you are going to die anyway? A salad or a double bacon cheeseburger? Are you going to keep going to the gym every day or take up a cocaine habit instead? While your choices are still your own to make, they are heavily motivated by something you did not have a choice in. Your free will is being manipulated. Compare this to someone who just found out, through a spiritual epiphany granted to him by God himself, that God exists. After having irrefutable evidence of the existence of God, the rest of his choices, while technically still his own, are heavily influenced by this knowledge or rather choice to believe such knowledge. Will you watch football on Sunday or go to church knowing God is up there watching you? Will you get a divorce knowing God forbids it? While you technically still have a choice in the matter, the
It is certainly possible for God to influence our beliefs through indirect and discrete means without the cost of our free will. However, they underestimate the magnitude of the decision to believe in God. If everyone on earth were influenced, persuaded, or manipulated to believe in God, then every aspect of our lives would be drastically different. Every choice would be motivated by a belief or an acceptance of knowledge we did not have a choice in accepting. Suppose you go to the doctors for a regular checkup. You are at peak physical condition, you eat well, and have never smoked or drank alcohol in your life. However, your doctor informs you in ten years you will die from a rare genetic heart disease. While at first you do not believe this is possible, he provides evidence for his findings, and you believe him. While it is entirely up to you to believe this diagnosis given such evidence, how you live the next and last ten years of your life will revolve around this decision that the doctor has persuaded you to believe. What will you eat for dinner knowing in ten years you are going to die anyway? A salad or a double bacon cheeseburger? Are you going to keep going to the gym every day or take up a cocaine habit instead? While your choices are still your own to make, they are heavily motivated by something you did not have a choice in. Your free will is being manipulated. Compare this to someone who just found out, through a spiritual epiphany granted to him by God himself, that God exists. After having irrefutable evidence of the existence of God, the rest of his choices, while technically still his own, are heavily influenced by this knowledge or rather choice to believe such knowledge. Will you watch football on Sunday or go to church knowing God is up there watching you? Will you get a divorce knowing God forbids it? While you technically still have a choice in the matter, the