By: Richard Smith

AS> That is your CHOICE, Marilyn.  There is no other. And
AS> unless you fight for police cameras to monitor every
AS> aspect of your life and the lives of EVERYONE, you
AS> agree EXACTLY with the concept of free will.  You agree
AS> exactly with God.  Live with it.

LB> So monitoring DOES equal loss of free will....do you begin
LB> to see why so many here laugh when you trot out the idea of
LB> free will before an omniscient god?

Looks like entrapment to me.

If I put a chocolate cupcake on the counter and then
tell my six-year-old he can't have it and shouldn't
touch it, it's iffy if I'm being a nice guy.

If I then leave him alone with the cupcake and step
around the corner, I'm being irresponsible and unrealistic.

If, while around the corner, I peek to make sure he's not
going after it, I'm entrapping, and I'm not trusting.

If I see him go after it and then step around the corner
and beat him black and blue (which isn't quite as bad as
Hell is, right?), then I am a bully, a fraud, and an
all-around nasty guy.

If I then demand that he love be even while I do this, I am
clueless, and worse.

If I promise him that I will always listen to what he says
and that I love him dearly, what then?  If my other son then
starts to beat him for some reason, and he yells out for me,
and I don't even respond, I am a liar and a fraud.  AND
perhaps a coward.

Ken Wiens Addendum: If he does indeed take the cupcake, that
doesn't mean that he is not really my son . . . it means
that he is, according to standards I've created, a bad son.

I think you're acutely on-the-ball with this one, IMNSHO . . . . .