>> "Sharpe Fan" <sharpeseagle2003AntiSpam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>>> I think it was a great episode except that God took away Joan's free
>>> will.
No he didn't, at least not more so than it is always taken away, for
everyone.
>>> He framed her. He asked to pick up some trash knowing it would get
her
>>> accused of something she didn't do and get punished for it. It is
also
>>> on
>>> her record when she applies to college and reinforces Price's already
bad
>>> opinion of her.
>>>
>>> God should have given Joan a choice in the matter.
>"ottomatic" <spamout@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>> hello, JoA... have you heard the one about JOB?
>> it's God, he works that way
>
"Sharpe Fan" <sharpeseagle2003AntiSpam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>The God in JoA constantly says free will is im****tant and that Joan can
>always say no. But she can only given an informed yes or no if she knows
>what is really being asked.
A very large point from day one is that Joan can't know all the
ramifications of what is being asked of her. For the time that the point
was most explicitly driven home, see my sig.
God has spent 41 episodes now, working to get Joan to just accept what he
asks of her on faith. In many ways this episode was a culmination of all
that. God gives Joan an assignment, assures her that good will result,
gives her interim assurances that she's doing it right and that good is
resulting, and at the end tells her she did good and good resulted, but
Joan never got to see the good consequences and, per God, won't see the
good consequences of this particular assignment. Helen and Luke got a
cookie after their lesson, but God has obviously reached the point with
Joan that he doesn't feel it necessary to give her a cookie every time she
does what he expects that she should be doing.
As for the 'free will' question, when was it taken away? God did not
march Joan down to that house like an automaton. God did not even give
Joan community service. Price did that, and he has free will just like
Joan does.
When you come up to a red light, you have the free will to stop or
continue. If you continue, the police have the free will to write you a
ticket. You then have the free will to not pay that ticket, and the judge
has the free will to put you in jail. Legal and society rules, and
awareness of others reactions to your actions, don't take away your free
will, they just inform your choices.
Also, for some strange reason, people confuse the ability to observe and
predict behavior with controlling that behavior. God may know what you
will choose, but that doesn't mean that you don't choose. A more mundane
example, if I run a red light in front of a police car, I am not taking
away the police officer's free will, just because I can accurately predict
what his action will be. Flipping on the lights and coming after me is
still his choice.
--
"Who needs the big picture? Not me! Hints are fine."
-Joan Girardi
(after God showed her just a little of his omnipresent brain)
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