Yuyutsu,

<<We CAN pursue an understanding of God and it is an excellent practice which prepares and purifies us to become better recipients of divine grace.>>

Which God/god are you writing about?

Dear OzSpen,

«Which God/god are you writing about?»

God. Is there more than one?

To Yuyutsu. Try to keep things simple. After all if we out-think our own observations, then there's nothing left to reign in our thoughts and keep them true. In the instance of whether you wrote what you wrote, or if it was your mind in automatic. The simple observation that you did it should be enough.

After that we can consider if what you do (or what I do) as reasonable, sense-able, or thought out at all; or if what we do is out of habit, out of instinct, or out of some other impulse. But all of that doesn't separate us from our actions, our behavior, or our words.

If it helps there's another way to look at it. From an existential philosopher, the question is raised and answered of whether we are real or an illusion. His well known phrase is "I think therefore I am." This observation that we think and therefore that makes us real enough, answers the question "how do you know it's true," that can be repeated over and over again after any conclusion. It answers it because it's observable to test our philosophies by.

In the same way, regardless of differences we have on belief or views of the world, we can still observe the same things, and stay grounded by those observations.

Don't over think it. Keep it simple, and stay grounded. I know you wrote what you wrote, and it wasn't an outside influence or an unthinking state. It was you regardless of influence or state of mind. Just as what I've written is what I write, and not someone else.

Yuyutsu,

<<God. Is there more than one?>>

You were the one who stated you were God and I am God. I can assure you that I'm NOT the Lord God Almighty who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

I'm a created human being who has eternal salvation, thanks to Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

In everyday life it is forgivable to use simplified language: say you ask "are you breathing?", you don't really want to know whether it is my body, my mind or myself who are breathing, but only whether you need to call an ambulance.

But in our case, we discuss free-will and we need to be meticulous and look deeper than appearances because there cannot be any free-will without a will to begin with.

Yes, ultimately we are responsible, including for what our minds and bodies do. If your dog bites people, can you excuse yourself saying "It's the dog, not me"? You could have probably trained your dog better or kept it on a leash, but even if you couldn't then why did you buy/adopt that dog in the first place? Similarly, if your brain has an untreatable murderous strain then why have you identified yourself with that brain to begin with?

---

Dear OzSpen,

You will certainly attain eternal salvation, may God bless you sooner rather than later, yet your human will not survive as it will go to the worms.

Nor can your puny mind which believes that you are just a small entity, separate from all others, survive the light once you are with God.

It is our greatest malady that we forgot who we are, our infinite worth and unlimited glory, instead identifying ourselves as mere human-beings.

Salvation is when we wake up from this delusion of smallness, to realise who we truly eternally are and always were.

To Yuyutsu.

When it comes to any subject, free will included, there is the potential to come to outlandish conclusions that have no merit, and no basis in reality. It is because of this that I recommend to keep it simple. Don't try to out think what can be readily observed, or try to see past and ignore what is right in front of you.

That advise can be applied to both the topic of free will, as well as the topic of religion and God. Regarding if you control yourself and have a will of your own, there can only be two real conclusions.

1). Each person has their own choice in their actions, and can be concluded on this by how we choose anything in our lives can be made with equal freedom as any other choices we make.

2). Each person is on a dictated path that they have no control over.

The issue here is that if the second option is true, then we live in a strange illusion of having a free will, but really have none. The illusion would be so great, that it can not be validated or confirmed that we actually don't choose anything.

(Continued)