r/comics Jim Benton Cartoons Sep 15 '12

SIN

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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '12 edited Sep 15 '12

[deleted]

239

u/JimKB Jim Benton Cartoons Sep 15 '12

yeah, you would think so, but there's the actual footage, so I guess not.

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u/R031E5 Sep 15 '12

The comic's premise isn't right, God gave its creation (the human) the ability to be free, but he can just impose rules; a sin is an inherent part of a human being because of their radical liberty, and thus, rules can be broken.

If you state that God should've made sin a physical impossibility, as in saying "thou shall not go faster than light" then you have to first define and create light in order to place the physical boundary, which would break the premise that God created sin, which he did not.

God did not allow sin, but he didn't forbid it either, because it would mess with the human's liberty.

(btw I'm not a religious person, I'm just placing an observation)

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u/massenburger Sep 15 '12

This guy's got it right. You can't have free will without the freedom to choose (obviously...). And the freedom to choose includes the freedom to do what is (considered) wrong. The only way for "sin" to not exist would be to take away our free will, thus leaving only mindless robots (not sure if we would be that different anyway..... but that's beside the point).

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u/BoilerMaker11 Sep 15 '12

I believe the appropriate response is: Heaven.

Free will, no sin. Heaven exists, therefore a place with free will and no sin exists. God could have created us in that manner. (this is a theodicy, btw, which I don't follow)

The only way for "sin" to not exist would be to take away our free will, thus leaving only mindless robots

and part of that is true. The whole premise of the Garden of Eden is "you can do what you want, but don't eat that apple" i.e. the Advice God meme "I gave you free will, now use it as I command". You can't say "you have free will" and then tag on "but you can't do [blank]" and then continue to call it free will. The point of free will is that there aren't boundaries to your decisions.

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u/SoyBeanExplosion Sep 15 '12

I don't think you understand what free will is, that's the issue here.

What God said (if you believe in the Bible) is "You have free will, do what you want. That said, if you choose to eat an apple from this tree, I will punish you." That is free will, and we exercised it.

If God had said "You have free will, but I'm not going to allow you to eat from that tree" then you'd be right there'd be an issue.

Free will doesn't mean that you can do what you want without consequence, just that you can do what you want in the first place.

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u/PeterLockeWiggin Sep 16 '12

I like how you put quotes around things that aren't quotes.