God is believed to be omnipotent and large number believe He predestined our lives. Can He do otherwise?
919158
Yes, God has the power to predestine or not predestine our lives as He so chooses.  I agree with you in that I believe we have free choice.  I don't understand so easily how you come to know the mind of God.  Everyone is selected for His service, and everyone is blessed.  We need not seek Him, since He is already knocking on the door of our hearts.  All we must do is let Him in.  Yes, because of our freedom of choice, if we choose to follow God, we will be with Him forever in heaven.
752616
Whether I believed in God or not, my behavior would change very little.  I believe that life is more pleasant when we treat each other with respect, compassion and generosity, and demand the same from our leaders.  It is worse when we seek to comfort ourselves to the detriment of others.  Promises of reward and threats of punishment are not necessary.\n\nIt's not a matter to me of whether I believe God exists but whether God, as presented, makes sense.  If God created us to endure a series of tests or a rule-bound game, with an absolute reward/punishment outcome, I'd consider that God unworthy of the concept.  If God is a co-witness and fellow traveller who values experience over obedience, whose concept of justice is based on compassion rather than rules, and who would never consider abandoning one of his creatures, I could buy into that.  \n\nGod is supposed to be omniscient and omnipotent.  They say knowledge is power, then they say power, especially absolute power, corrupts.  Not quite true.  As humans, we can never have absolute knowledge or power, only "more" of each.  It is the remaining ignorance and fear that corrupts us because our grasp is tenuous.  Were someone to have absolute control of all power and knowledge in the universe, that person would be invulnerable and would understand everything.  That person would have no needs or threats, and no obligation to "settle" others' conflicts.  That person would be free to either ignore the problems or to objectively show a better way out of them.\n\nIf you are a parent, you may have had an experience of children fighting among themselves, understanding both of them perfectly while realizing that their dispute is meaningless.  Or you may have comforted a child facing a new experience, or cautioned a child incapable of recognizing a danger.  That's what it would be like for God.  Dispassion, wisdom, and patience would be God's attributes.  Anger, revenge and score-keeping just don't fit the picture.  These are the attributes of weak, fearful, childish humans.\n\nThe omniscience we lack is the reason we are in conflict, because we don't understand each other.  The omnipotence we lack means some of us will be stronger than others and we would likely exploit that for the sake of our own security.  God would transcend all that.  Absolute knowledge is understanding.  Absolute power is compassion.\n\nIf God were presented logically, as a loving creator who calls us out of fear into confidence and sympathy, I could go for it. The petty, capricious autocrat painted by Bible-thumpers doesn't make the grade.
51686
Yes its possible. God is everywhere - all around us - God is life - when a person values life - the people around him, and gets in touch with his inner self... then he has fallen in love with god. I think the perfect example is mother theresa.
651986
Don't you believe that God will always prevail?
310896
1. If God exists, then God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect.\n   2. If God is omnipotent, then God has the power to eliminate all evil.\n   3. If God is omniscient, then God knows when evil exists.\n   4. If God is morally perfect, then God has the desire to eliminate all evil.\n   5. Evil exists.\n   6. If evil exists and God exists, then either God doesn't have the power to eliminate all evil, or doesn't know when evil exists, or doesn't have the desire to eliminate all evil.\n   7. Therefore, God doesn't exist.\n   8. If God doesn't exist, hell can't exist either.
36444
Good for you! I've often asked the question: How can we possibly understand even a tiny part of an omnipotent being? To think we can is presumption. I'm reminded of a quote from Inherit the Wind: God created Man in His image, and Man returned the favor. To think that any religion speaks for God (or all religions, for that matter) would cast God as a sociopath with the emotional maturity of an infant. We ascribe so much to God's will; everything from winning a Grammy to losing a child, to finding a parking place to destroying entire civilizations for being "primitive".\n\nIn my searching I found some New Age teachings which suggested that God contemplated Itself and, as a result, split into billions of tiny pieces, each piece endowed with the will and the ability to experience all that Life is. So in the sense that an omnipotent being would have no reason (in my tiny comprehension) to hate any part of itself, God therefore loves each and every one of us.\n\nThat's also the reason I don't believe there is a Hell. But that's another story. ;-)
230289
I was taught the same veiw of God when I was Growing up. Namely that an omnipotent creator was watching out for us. And you're right, given the vast amount of suffering we see, it's hard not to reach the conclusion that God is non-existent, not omnipotent, or non-interventionist. I lean towards the last.\nWhen you buy a car you don't pick one that will wind up in the shop every other month, so why do people automatically assume that God would have created a "high maintenance" universe?\nYou're right there is much suffering in the world, but in the end, the pain your body feels can't really touch or effect your soul (or animating energy). Animating energy, being energy, can't really die. When our body dies, this animating enrgy leaves the body, it's not wasted or destroyed. And if there is a creator behind this, then he/she would not automatically feel the need to alter the process.\nFurther, I really believe that man is in the "image of God". And to me this means (as God is self-eternal), that we have the ability to organize our animating energy into a permanent consciousness. and towards this, it would be a mistake for God to actually intervene in the process. So I guess I see it as all animating energy will eventually have that chance.\nLao-Tzu once said that "A leader is best when the world barely knows that he exists, and when his work is done the people way say, 'lo for we did the work ourselves' ".
637424
Because even if they knew of way to contact Him, God can change His mind based on what you do in the next minute. We do not have scientifically credible and verifiable evidence of the existence of God, Heaven, or Hell; these are a matter of faith, not reason based on firsthand knowledge. Even if it turns out the Bible is right about all of these, we cannot presume to know where God intends to send each of us.
231488
Yes, God has predestined some to hell and it is their choice to go. I know it sounds like an antimony but it really isn't. \n\nWhen we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things have ever been, and perpetually remain, before His eyes, so that to His knowledge nothing is future or past, but all things are present: and present in such a manner that He does not merely conceive of them from ideas formed in His mind, as things remembered by us appear present to our minds, but really beholds and sees them as if actually placed before Him. And this foreknowledge extends to the whole world and to all the creatures. Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which He hath determined in Himself what He would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others.
1115464
Do you really think anyone on Yahoo Answers has the answer to what many philosphers have been trying to figure out for thousands of years? Ehh... I'll try.\n\nI have spent countless nights trying to get some sort of answer myself. It's really hard for me accept that there is a God though. Either that, or it's hard for me to accept the God that my parents tried to drill into to my head since I was a baby. (They are fundamentalist Christians by the way. the outrageous ideas make me sad that there are more people out there like them.)\n\nI think there might a God because it seems very unlikely that such a complex life could have happened by accident, or by an explosion of matter. The way that DNA is constructed, cells, and just the way that the human body functions seems all too perfect for it to happen by some random chance. \n\nHowever, I as I said before, I don't know if I could ever believe in the Catholic or Christian God. Supposedly, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. That means he is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful. I'm sure that you are well aware of the sorrow, suffering and pain that a billion people feel every day due to war,starvation, genocide, poverty, and most importantly evil. If God was all-good, he would not allow this to happen. If God is all-good, but he can't stop it, that means he is not all-powerful. If said God is not all-powerul, then he cannot be God. \n\nGod cannot be omnicent or all-knowing, because humans have free will, and those two are contridictory. One might argue that everything needs a creator. Even the Universe. Something cannot create itself. So God created the universe, but who or what created God? \n\nPerhaps there is a God, but it is likely that all of those rules, and dogmatic views that Christians teach is not accurate. The texts of the Bible have been PROVEN to be altered by numerous kings, who put into it what they wanted. Similar to how George W. Bush is running the country based on his morals. I don't know, you decide.\n\n The answer will probably never be solved, and people will always be kept wondering. I believe in God, but I don't believe in organized religion.\n\nRead this, you would find it interesting. It's a converstaion between an ordinary man and God. Good read.\nhttp://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal
175131
one cant, at least THIS one cant.  When something terrible happens and you question gods "wisdom" a religious person will most often come back with god has a plan we just don't know what it is.  Well my point is if there is a god and this god is omnipotent then this god allows all of this terrible stuff to happen.  Now if this god has a plan that lets these things happen FOR WHATEVER REASON then it is not something I would want in my life.  If a person stands idly by and lets pain and suffering befall his fellow man when it is in his/her ability to stop the suffering then they are as much at fault as whatever is causing the suffering.  If a "god" dose the same thing, well its just a perverse sort of thing to put your faith in.
738675
God lets people make choices, this allows us to be human and not robots.  Ultimately, some people will make the wrong choices.
37537
God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. You are thinking of God in human terms, and He is most definitely not human.
526273
They believe that God was once like you or I and became "enlightned" or glorified. They also believe that every person here on earth has the potential to also become like God. I dont think it takes away from his awesomeness, but rather gives us a great goal to strive for. Dont you think it would be cool to make your own universes if you had the proper knowledge to do so?
1084080
The reality is that most PEOPLE of average or better intelligence (let alone scientists!) seriously question the existence of god, but understand that it is easier just to go along with this popular myth. If god did in fact create everything, he did kind of a crappy job (what's an appendix for? why did he make malaria? why do babies get cancer? why do priests molest children? why did so many Jews perish in WWII? Was Hitler more powerful than god?), so that's why people don't believe.  Even if there is a god, clearly he is neither omnipotent nor truly benevolent.  Do you have a family member with cancer? Do they deserve it?
692075
Yeah, always wondered that myself. Just what could one do to warrent ETERNAL suffering? Forever and ever.\n\nEven if such a god existed, who in their right minds would follow him? Those that follow such a god without even evidence that he exists must be especially foolish...
1107930
If God wanted to leave absolutely no room for anyone to doubt or try to disprove His existance and authority, He could have done. His thoughts and ways are better than ours - we'd love everyone to just have to believe - but God gives everyone the choice. People don't want it to be true that there is a God - the implications are too big. Like recognising that yes there is actually right and wrong - people don't want to go there - remember Pharohs magicians who tried to explain away the wonders that were shown them in Egypt - they didn't want to acknowlege God either - its nothing fresh!  The reality of our Eternal God who controls everything in life and death is just more than folks can take - they want to "live a good life and be happy" They don't want to know about a God who will hold us responsible what we do with our lives, it just doesn't fit with their "lifestyle choice". They will either try to logically reason a way that it could possibly have happened without needing a God or they will just instantly dismiss these realities without further thought as just "fairy tales". Don't fret. Yes some people will try to explain things in a way that ignores God, they refuse to believe - creation itself cries out! Its of no suprise in one sense ... there is going to be both the sheep and the goats. Stand firm. One day every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that He Is LORD.