Who is responsible?

[Peds nurse]

Imagine that a car manufacturing company, made the standard cars that we all drive today. It is equipped with a manual that tells the driver how to use the car efficiently. Although the car is equipped to engage in speeds of 120 miles per hour, the manual cautions the driver of the hazards of driving at such speeds.

Question for debate. Should the manufacturing company be held liable for people getting into accidents and sometimes causing death by driving at speeds not recommended?

I think we can translate this to the spiritual realm. Why should God be held accountable for people who make faulty decisions with their life, sometimes hurting or killing others?

[shnarkle]

Imagine that a car manufacturing company, made the standard cars that we all drive today. It is equipped with a manual that tells the driver how to use the car efficiently. Although the car is equipped to engage in speeds of 120 miles per hour, the manual cautions the driver of the hazards of driving at such speeds.

Question for debate. Should the manufacturing company be held liable for people getting into accidents and sometimes causing death by driving at speeds not recommended?

I think we can translate this to the spiritual realm. Why should God be held accountable for people who make faulty decisions with their life, sometimes hurting or killing others?

He should NOT be held accountable for the bad choices of human beings. He has deemed us worthy enough to be given the ability to think out our decisions and make our own choices, according to what we think, what we hold dear, what we consider important. Jehovah has love and respect for humans. He has given us all the information we need to make good decisions. If we ignore those instructions it's like throwing away the manual and choosing to put sand in our gas tanks. Should the car manufacturer be held accountable because we willfully went against instructions and put something in the gas tank that would mess up the car?

What you've posted is all quite correct, but I think there's a bigger issue here in that ultimately, it isn't how well the car is taken care of that matters, but who is taking care of the car. Even now, there are automobile manufacturers who are producing automobiles with computer software that cannot be legally tampered with. It isn't sold to the consumer. The consumer owns the car, but not the proprietary software that comes with the car. The software determines how the car is to be operated at peak performance within certain regulatory guidlines. This doesn't stop people from tampering with this software to improve performance in violation of these government regulations.

The car is only doing what it's been programmed to do, and by whomever is directing it according to their will. In other words, the owner's manual isn't enough to keep people from violating warranties. This is the explicit reason for the problem. Ultimately, manufacturers do end up paying legal costs to defend themselves, even when they're proved innocent. Now they're building automobiles that drive themselves the way the manufacturers want them to be driven; not according to the will of passengers. That is the will of the manufacturer. The fact is that the manufacturer is responsible. The manufacturer does pay. That is the gospel message

[ttruscott]

I think your theology would say that we're here because we chose the hard way, and within that hard way, there is a way back, or the way to destruction. Those who choose the way to destruction really can't help themselves. They just see that as a no-brainer, and those who choose the way back do so as well when they've gotten to a point where they can't stand to see the pain and suffering they inflict on others or the pain and suffering inflicted by the lost.

Yes, indeed.

In theological terms:
my theology would say that the sinful elect are here because we chose the hard way, ie we chose to rebel against GOD's method to cleanse our reality from evil and within that hard way there is a way back due to HIS promise of salvation for us called election , ie salvation from our sin. Those sinners who rejected the promise of election by their own free will are on the way to destruction, ie, banishment for their eternal evil.

Those who choose the way to destruction really can't help themselves. They just see that as a no-brainer, and cannot see the pernicious effects of their addiction to sin upon their decisions. Those who choose the way back do so as well when GOD's grace and loving influence with them brings them to a point where they can't stand to see the pain and suffering they inflict on others or the pain and suffering inflicted by the lost which brings them to repentance and rebirth which returns their free will to them and makes them acceptable to GOD in Christ.