Cain and Abel, who is to blame?

The concept that god is all knowing gets glossed over with this story. God is all knowing. He is fully aware that Cain will kill Abel. He knows why Cain will kill Abel. Does he warn Abel? Does he mention to Adam and Eve that Cain is unstable? Does he give a talk to Cain about the evils of pride and killing? Does he offer Cain some compliments to make him feel better about himself? No, he does nothing.
He is all powerful and all knowing. He knows that people makes mistakes, after all, he is still mad about the whole eating of the forbidden fruit thing. But he does nothing.
Yet the debate is focused on Cain. The debate should be focused on god. He is the only one in the story who knows what will happen and he is also the only one who can change it. But he does nothing.
Christians say that god is all knowing, but they really do not comprehend what the concept means.

Can free will exist?

Free will and god being all knowing


If I have free will, I can make any choice I want. However, if god is all knowing, he is aware of every choice I will make before I make it. Therefore, I am unable to make a choice that god is unaware of. If I am unable to make a choice that god is unaware of, then my choices are not actually choices. They have been predetermined. I am incapable of making an an actual choice because the choice I end up making is pre-known by god. If the choice is known before it is actually made, then it is simply a completion of a pre-arranged event. Therefore, my free will is meaningless. I am not capable of actually making a real decision. In other words, if God already knows the future, then humanity is destined to corroborate with his knowledge of the future and not have true free will to deviate from it


The only way free will can exist is if god is not all knowing. However, if god is not all knowing, then he is not all powerful and is not god. The two concepts are mutually exclusive.


This also presupposes the problem of an omniscient god who has free will directly in arguing that the will of God himself would be bound to follow whatever God foreknows himself doing throughout eternity.

According to Jeremiah 18, god does not know what he will do in the future. "At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it" (Jer. 18:7-10).

Aspects of the biblical god, being all powerful vs. being all knowing.

The Christian god is considered to be all powerful and all knowing. That is not possible. If god is all powerful, then he can make any change that he wants. However, if he is all knowing, then he already knows how everything will turn out. If he makes a change, then something new occurred that he was not previously aware of. He, therefore, would not be all knowing. However, if he does not know everything, then he can’t be all powerful, as there is something he does not have complete control over. And if he is incapable of making a change, then he is once again, not all powerful.  The two concepts are mutually exclusive. Just as a square circle cannot exist, the biblical god cannot exist either.

I occasionally have Christians tell me that god cannot do something that is contrary to his nature. He therefore cannot change his mind. However, the bible does not agree with that view. Jer. 18:7-10 "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it."

In this verse, god says he plans to uproot, tear down and destroy a nation. That, therefore, would be his plan. But if he relents and does not do this, then he changed his mind. It does not say that if they change their ways, he will have accomplished his goal by making them see the error of his ways. It says he will relent. If he knew that they would change their ways, then he would not be relenting. Relenting is deciding not to do something one already planned on doing. It is not completing an original plan. 

This point becomes even more evident with the idea that god answers prayers. For prayer to work, that implies that god is willing to change events for a specific person. However, if god is willing to change events, then he cannot be all knowing. If he was all knowing, then he already knows how everything will turn out. Therefore, the prayer is pointless. It either coincides with what god always has planned or it does not. If it does coincide, then there was no need to pray because the outcome was already what you needed before you prayed for it. If it does not coincide, then praying is pointless because it never had a chance to change anything. 
If prayer actually does change events, then god cannot be all knowing. If god is not all knowing, then he is not all powerful. Since the standard model of god says that he is all knowing and all powerful, then he cannot be answering prayer and changing events to something he did not already plan for.

Can prayer work?

For prayer to work, that implies that god is willing to change events for a specific person. However, if god is willing to change events, then he cannot be all knowing. If he was all knowing, then he already knows how everything will turn out. Therefore, the prayer is pointless. It either coincides with what god always has planned or it does not. If it does coincide, then there was no need to pray because the outcome was already what you needed before you prayed for it. If it does not coincide, then praying is pointless because it never had a chance to change anything.
If prayer actually does change events, then god cannot be all knowing. If god is not all knowing, then he is not all powerful. Since the standard model of god says that he is all knowing and all powerful, then he cannot be answering prayer and changing events to something he did not already plan for.

Atheists in prisons

The Federal Bureau of Prisons does have statistics on religious affiliations of inmates. The following are total number of inmates per religion category:

Response Number %

---------------------------- --------

Catholic 29267 39.164%

Protestant 26162 35.008%

Muslim 5435 7.273%

American Indian 2408 3.222%

Nation 1734 2.320%

Rasta 1485 1.987%

Jewish 1325 1.773%

Church of Christ 1303 1.744%

Pentecostal 1093 1.463%

Moorish 1066 1.426%

Buddhist 882 1.180%

Jehovah Witness 665 0.890%

Adventist 621 0.831%

Orthodox 375 0.502%

Mormon 298 0.399%

Scientology 190 0.254%

Atheist 156 0.209%

Hindu 119 0.159%

Santeria 117 0.157%

Sikh 14 0.019%

Bahai 9 0.012%

Krishna 7 0.009%

---------------------------- --------

Total Known Responses 74731 100.001% (rounding to 3 digits does this)

http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm

Hmmm, atheists make up around 4-6% of the US population but are less than one quarter of one percent in prison populations. Catholics and Protestants make up 74%. Even those "peaceful" Muslims are adding 7.2% to the prison populations. So, who is actually the group engaging in anti-social, immoral behavior?

Muslims keeping sex slaves

KUWAIT: A female political activist and former parliamentary candidate has recommended the introduction of legislation to legalize the provision of enslaved female concubines for Muslim men in Kuwait in a bid, she says, to protect those men from committing adultery or corruption.


The activist, Salwa Al-Mutairi, suggested apparently seriously in a video broadcast online that she had been informed by some clerics that affluent Muslim men who fear being seduced or tempted into immoral behavior by the beauty of their female servants, or even of those servants 'casting spells' on them, would be better to purchase women from an 'enslaved maid' agency for sexual purposes.

She suggested that special offices could be set up to provide concubines in the same way as domestic staff recruitment agencies currently provide housemaids.

"We want our youth to be protected from adultery," said Al-Mutairi, suggesting that these maids could be brought as prisoners of war in war-stricken nations like Chechnya to be sold on later to devout merchants.

"This is not religiously forbidden," she added, indicating that Caliph Haroun Al-Rashid (766-809 AD) was married to one woman but possessed 200 concubines.

Further reading: Men should be allowed sex slaves and female prisoners could do the job - and all this from a WOMAN politician from Kuwait. To reiterate from that article:


"Mutairi said that during a recent visit to Mecca, Saudi muftis said it was not forbidden to own a sex slave."

Further reading: Men should be allowed sex slaves and female prisoners could do the job - and all this from a WOMAN politician from Kuwait. To reiterate from that article:


"Mutairi said that during a recent visit to Mecca, Saudi muftis said it was not forbidden to own a sex slave."

http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreethoughtNation


So, according to Muslims, having sex slaves is more moral than committing adultery.

EXPELLED ON THE BLOCK?

Now this is ironic. I saw this article and wanted to pass it along.

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=groups2&passive=1209600&continue=http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news&followup=http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed -- the 2008 creationist propaganda
movie fronted by Ben Stein -- is scheduled to be auctioned, lock,
stock, and barrel, pursuant to the bankruptcy proceeding of Premise
Media Holdings LP. According to a document filed in the United States
Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division,
on May 31, 2011, the trustee of the bankruptcy estate is seeking to
auction "[t]hat certain feature-length motion picture ('Picture')
'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed' and all collateral, allied,
ancillary, subsidiary and merchandising rights therein and thereto,
and all properties and things of value pertaining thereto." The
auction is scheduled to take place on-line from June 23 to June 28,
2011.

The high bidder will become the owner of the movie that The New York
Times (2008 Apr 18) described as "[o]ne of the sleaziest documentaries
to arrive in a very long time ... a conspiracy-theory rant
masquerading as investigative inquiry ... an unprincipled propaganda
piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike" and that was
denounced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
for its "profound dishonesty" and condemned by the Anti-Defamation
League for its "outrageous" misuse of the Holocaust to "tarnish those
who promote the theory of evolution." (NCSE's Expelled Exposed
provides a collection of reviews, commentary, and resources
documenting the extensive problems with Expelled.) Caveat emptor!