Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

In earlier posts , I referred to the idea that our universe (this Earth and solar system) is a smaller entity nestled within God's wider Universe .  This notion is something that Christians will be familiar with anyway through their faith, although many atheists may be uncomfortable with the concept. Rest assured there are many secular movies and books that deal with a universe-within-a-universe concept, the most familiar of these being the movie The Matrix.  In this movie, there is a specific way to move into and out of the nestled universe from the larger universe.  In The Matrix, someone from the outer universe could move in and out of it via a jack that went into the back of their head, to create an electronic connection with the inner universe, which was an entirely virtual universe.  However, this inner virtual universe was indistinguishable from reality to those within it. This led me to consider the ways in which we move into our inner universe, and out o...

One of the things that is the most consistent throughout the Bible is that we have Free Will. This is not something I had given much thought to previously. The things I found out were: God so valued free will that although He could have made us automatons, he didn't. As an example, He told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden. He could have 'built us' so that it was impossible for us to go against His wishes, but He didn't. He let us choose, even though in the end Adam and Eve disobeyed His wishes. God also allowed his enemy to have free will. Satan was an angel that disobeyed God. Although God could have destroyed Satan then and there, he allowed him to make his own decisions. This is not to say that God will never intervene (or has never intervened!) - just that God seems to value free will highly. In that case, why is there ever an argument for predestination? I think the main argument for predistination is based on two ...