Trailblazer said: The way I know is that it was revealed in the Writings of Baha’u’llah. Can I prove it? Heck no. But I can still know it.
Blu said: Then you can do something I can't.
Apparently, but not necessarily, as we all have the capacity to know what God revealed about souls.
But you're only making the choice that God foresaw and intended you to make back before [he] made the universe. You may think you have free will, but you can no more do something different, no more take God by surprise, than fly unaided to Mars. [He]'s all-knowing so there's no escape.
So is this the argument that because God is
All-Knowing, God
knows what I will do before I do it, so I have no choice but to
do what God knows I will
do, so that means I have no free will? I do not buy that argument, for the simple reason that God’s knowledge is not want
causes humans to do what they do....
“Question.—If God has knowledge of an action which will be performed by someone, and it has been written on the Tablet of Fate, is it possible to resist it?
Answer.—The foreknowledge of a thing is not the cause of its realization; for the essential knowledge of God surrounds, in the same way, the realities of things, before as well as after their existence, and it does not become the cause of their existence. It is a perfection of God.......
Therefore, the knowledge of God in the realm of contingency does not produce the forms of the things. On the contrary, it is purified from the past, present and future. It is identical with the reality of the things; it is not the cause of their occurrence........
The mathematicians by astronomical calculations know that at a certain time an eclipse of the moon or the sun will occur. Surely this discovery does not cause the eclipse to take place. This is, of course, only an analogy and not an exact image.” Some Answered Questions, pp. 138-139
That said, I have to do what God knows I will do, because what I will do is identical with what God knows I will do... The caveat is that what God knows I will do (my predestined fate) is malleable because
some of my fate is impending, thus it can be altered by God according to the free will choices I make. God never alters an irrevocable fate (even though He could), but God can alter what God knows will happen (an impending fate) at any time because God is All-Powerful. Whether God chooses to alter an impending fate is at His discretion and praying and supplicating can have an influence.
That would explain a great deal. God is NOT a moral exemplar, then. Do NOT act as God acts; rely only on your own conscience and the advice of those you can trust.
You are correct, we should rely upon our own conscience and the advice of people we trust.
There is no way to KNOW how God acts, but we cannot be like God anyhow since we are not infallible or perfect, as God is. However, since humans are made in the image and likeness of God we can strive to reflect God’s attributes, the ones that are not unique to God...
The attributes that are unique to God. Only God is
Eternal, Holy, Unchanging, Impassable, Infinite, Omnipresent, All-powerful, All-Knowing, All-Wise, Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, Sovereign, Righteous, and Immaterial, so nobody except God can have those attributes.
God sends His Manifestations (Messengers) who reflect
all of His attributes, except the ones noted above. Humans have the potential to reflect all of those attributes, such as
Good, Loving, Gracious, Merciful, Just, Forgiving, Patient, and we reflect them to a greater of lesser degree, depending upon how spiritual we are.
It does sound very odd to me, though: God has always been sold as the ideal leader, the true moral exemplar.
In a sense that is correct; however, we can never be like God or even a Manifestation of God because God is Infallible and Manifestations of God also are Infallible since they are a perfect mirror image of God on earth. No human can be Infallible because we are by our very nature fallible creatures. We can only strive to reflect the attributes of the Manifestations of God. That is why Jesus said to His followers to follow Him and be as I am.
I think it's morally wrong to sit on your hands watching when people get ill, injured, murdered, act to screw the planet, and you can effortlessly prevent the harm.
But that doesn't appear to be God's view, despite his billing.
No, it is not God’s view that He should do what humans have been entrusted by Him to do. It is immoral if humans sit on their hands, but God is not subject to being wrong because God is Infallible. Aside from that, God does not intervene to stop what humans are responsible for because that would cause humans to sit on their hands and ignore the problems in the world. This material world is a moral playground and God wants us to develop our character by making moral choices, choosing between good and evil, thereby becoming more spiritual. That is the
purpose of our existence on earth is to make moral choices and thereby develop our character, so if God intervened and did what we are responsible to do then that would nullify our reason for going through this life.
Ah well. I'll continue to try to be a decent human most of the time, and if there's a god or two out there, let them make of it what they may ─ if anything.
You appear to be a very moral human being, and that is what it is all about at the end of this life, how you lived your life, and mainly how you treated other people. For those who are believers God has given us two commandments above all else, love God and love your neighbor. Nonbelievers cannot love a God they do not acknowledge the existence of, but they can love their neighbor.