God's will.

[Disturbed]

I hear people saying this and cringe. What sort of god do these people believe in?

[Dr.Phool]

1. The one they created in their own image,

edit: keyboard fluke.

[Zorbuddha]

2. "God's will" is a wildly misconstrued concept

and often misused in rhetorical context.

[3waygeek]

3. The actual term is

God swill, when applied to Falwell, Swaggart, Robertson, et. al.

[prole_for_peace]

4. some people won't take responsibility for anything.

if they don't get a job it was God's will or the devil's doing. everything is out of their hands. bullsh**!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. concepts differ

Since my concept of God is All That Is, of course God's will operates-in scientific laws, in the way nature changes seasons, the way DNA is replicated, etc, etc.

But we all have choices, and we all have responsibilities, being co-creators of the universe (this is how we are made in God's image, according to my concept). One can "go with the flow" or "buck the tide"....going with the flow is going with God's will.

[Dcitizen]

6. If no God's will then

how Noah can build the ark to start the new world.
how Mose can lead Hebrew people to cross the sea
how Christ came as the Savior for humans's sin
how Rome could convert from Imperialists to Christian
...
but some postings are absolutely right, there are tons of labels of Gods' will for personal will of interest... to a level that it is too difficult to distinguish the Creator's genuine will, and the interpretation of God's will even through His own words in the Christian Bible as well as other religions' scripts
also caused many holy wars for centuries.

If only the Noahs survived but not the rest of people, then God's will is really the personal gift from God.

[aneerkoinos]

7. Gods will

Some think this means there's a bossy patriarch, tyrannical Sky God, whose will we have to obey, or...

I think Gods will means just things as they are, without the conditioned illusions we paint over our perceptions of world, especially the illusion of separation from Gods will. Freedom of will means our potential to realize the (inter)dependent nature of our illusions, of our selves.

[Disturbed]

8. Just a silly notion.

If something deemed good happens, it's God's will.

If something deemed bad happens, it's God's will.

Ok, everything that happens is God's will, right?

God is responsible for everything, right?

Oh, but hold on. What about free will?

Read the 1st Commandment and ask yourself about free will.

[tjdee]

10. That's always been my problem, and I'm a Christian.

I have a major problem with that...seems free will is just a trick of the devil, LOL!

:shrug:

It's awfully hard to fight against what you want all the time, so I stopped doing it. The God I believe in isn't so snarky to create free will as a joke.

[aneerkoinos]

11. My memory fails me

and no Bible at hand. What was the 1st Commandment?

I've asked my self often about free will, and read what Spinoza, Hume, Buddhists et alii say about the subject, but I must admit I don't understand it fully enough to make any sense trying to explain what I understand it to be.

But yes, for me God's will is one way to say that stuff just happens, and only real free will we have is to learn to stop asking Why. Which is pretty damn hard, if you come to think about it! :D

Can't explain better this time, perhaps some other time I can, Insh'Allah. :)

[H2O Man]

9. "God's will"

has nothing in conflict with free will or with an individual's responsibility. The best example of "God's will" comes from when the Master was in the garden, and experienced conflicting thoughts about the trial that awaited him. He resolved the inner conflict by accepting "God's will," rather than "his own." Yet in this example, God's will is not something external. It is not a silly notion of a "sky god." Rather, it was the ability to perceive on the upper level, which brings understanding and clarity, rather than from the lower levels which are marked by confusion and separation from the Divine Truth.

[Tux]

12. As a Deist

"God's will" is a phrase used by people to show that their actions are approved by their interpretation of Deity. It's just getting approval so they can connect what they did to Deity without anyone questioning it. With the theocrats running around, I am weary of that phrase.