Monday, July 18, 2011

Kevin Kelly

Here is a quote from Kevin Kelly, a cyberspace philosopher. If this is what "free will" means, I want nothing of it:

God has given us free will—true free will, not a phantom free will—and he wants us to surprise him. We are here to surprise God. God could make everything, but instead he says, "I bestow upon you the gift of free will so that you can participate in making this world. I could make everything, but I am going to give you some spark of my genius. Surprise me with something truly good and beautiful." So we invent things, and God says, "Oh my gosh, that was so cool! I could have thought of that, but they thought of that instead."

5 comments:

Robert Kunda said...

Oh my gosh, it gets worse than that. His note on the baptism of robots is wholly confused. It seems as if there's little discernment among the lemming commenters, either.

This man's theology is action-packed with issues.

nascent said...

That sounded similar to Open Theism, and then I read the whole article... Perhaps he would get along well with Frank Tipler (cf. The Physics of Christianity).

Robert Kunda said...

The more I think on it, the worse it gets. The level to which he's raised men (and consequently lower God) is shocking. That God would marvel and stare in wonder and surprise at his creation that will, according to this interview, be the one hence-forth creating children of God—he's literally made man into God and moved God to a hapless spectator. This is nothing like biblical Christianity.

Romans 1:25.

pennoyer said...

Of course, if you can "surprise God" with something truly good and beautiful, you could also surprise God with evil. The pagan gods were gods that could be "surprised". The world of antiquity was tired of their absurd pettiness.

D. A. Armstrong said...

A God who can be surprised is not omniscient.

A God who can be surprised is not omnipotent.

A God who can be surprised is not immutable.

A God who can be surprised is not eternal, as in existing outside of time.

A God who can be surprised is not metaphysically simple.

A God who can be surprised ought not be worshiped.

I think that covers it.