That's true brklyn.

God is not a puppeteer nor are we puppets.
We also are not robots.
We were created with a free will , but with that free will comes consequences that we cannot choose.

Free will is a huge responsibility and all will be held accountable accordingly.

As a matter of fact every idle word we speak will be held accountable.

Life is no joke.

Nothing is free if it has conditions or consequences attached to it.
This is free "if'..., is not "free".

This is the same twisted thinking that is evident in most religious doctrine.
I have free will as long as I;
Don't use it...
Use it within the conditions attached...
Accept the punishments and/or rewards for compliance or non-compliance to those attached conditions.

You are free to believe as you want as long as you believe in me is not free will.
If you do use your will to believe in me I will reward you with Heaven, if you don't, I will punish you with Hell.
This type of thinking makes no sense?

What does make sense is the fact that it is a manipulation tactic to control behavior with promises of reward and threats of punishment.
Religions are a society tactic to control the populace.

Personally, my belief in God requires no punishments or rewards.
My God is not insecure or needy. It exists whether I believe in It or not.
I'm no more special to It than a rock, a star or a galaxy. I am part of It and It is part of me.

Religions are written and created by insecure, needy people that require compliance to force their followers into behavior they deem fit.
It helps create and support human societies. This is important because humans are social creatures and the "tool" of religion helps bring unity.

He is right.

But according to that way of thinking we are not free in the United States. We must pay taxes and abide by the US laws.

And when Jesus returns we will be subject to Him (1Cor. 15:27-28), very much like being a citizen of the United States.

I don't have a "hell" in my Bible. And we do not go to heaven at death according to the Scriptures. My belief, much like the ancient Jews, has no after-life. I believe that the Scriptures teach us we must have a body in order to have life. No body, no life.

CLV John 11:24 Martha is saying to Him, "I am aware that he will be rising in the resurrection in the last day."

Still, I prefer being subject to Him over the USA.

We are not, I agree.

As for the rest of your response, meh.

Just the fact that religious discussions punish non-believers for expressing their Free Will indicates that religion does not embrace the concept of Free Will.
Convert your thinking or I will badger you till you do.
Why is it that religious people think others must comply to their beliefs?
For that matter, why must the go to such lengths to defend their beliefs and convert others so vehemently?
If they truly believed in Free Will they would say their piece and let things go but they don't.
When I tell them my own beliefs, I get told how wrong I am and that I am to be damned. How is that Free Will?
Isn't it enough that my beliefs give me contentment? It is for me.

curious what his medical diagnosis was at the time of death and after he revived ..

Do you know what temperature the morgue was ? Do you know his core temperature ? We know hypothermia (in the past ) was believed to benefit cerebral perfusion by resting the brain and reducing homeostatic demands on the body

Since you can't see electricity are you willing stick your finger in an AC wall socket? Just because one can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I have experienced accidental electrocution and survived (probability be praised), and stuck my tongue on 9 V batteries, I don't need to see it. I just need to sense or apprehend it.

Free will is an abstract concept considering we are biologically guided by needs such as water, food, and shelter; unless you want to override your basic needs, they will influence your free will, and you will consume or die. Not so free.

After that, free will is guided by culture, laws, and environment, etc.
Free will is just choice, if there are choices available.

If there are choices, there is no need to 'grant' free will, it is a natural occurrance.

Surviving electricity is different from recovering instantly from a major medical condition like a brain tumor. cancer, or even the replacing of an eye. All happened at Kathryn Kuhlman services.

The proof is in the pudding.

I agree with you about free will in general.
What I don't agree with is the religious description of free will and what is implied by that context.
It comes up a lot.

As for electricity, it can be measured and manipulated with anticipated results.
~Watts are a measurement of power, describing the rate at which electricity is being used at a specific moment.
~Watt-hours are a measurement of energy, describing the total amount of electricity used over time.
So, even though you can't see it, it is still a reality.
Another example of something that exists that is not seen that requires no belief is magnetism.
Even air seems to be invisible, yet it is a reality because it can be proven. If you extract the air from a box you are locked in, no amount of belief will allow you to breathe air that is not there. You suffocate and die.

Beliefs are delusions of reality. Once a delusion is lifted and reality is known, its very difficult to re-delude yourself.
Example:
I believe that hot stove will not burn my hand if I touch it.
That delusion will persist until I touch the hot stove and burn my hand.
Once that happens, no matter what I want to believe, I know the reality.
My delusion has been lifted.

There are also times when our beliefs are justified.
I believe there is electricity in my wall outlet. I don't need to shock myself to prove it. My belief is based on evidence when I plug in and turn on the light. My belief can also be a delusion if the breaker is popped without my knowledge. In this case, my belief can be tested with a verifiable result. The delusion is justified with knowledge. With that knowledge it becomes a reality, no longer a belief.

Religion tends to try to justify belief with other's belief.
That's like telling someone the power is off for that outlet, go ahead and touch the wires. All they while, the person telling the other, doesn't 'know' if the power for that outlet is on or off. Even if 15 people say the power is off, until they know it is, no amount of belief is going to make it so. They could be right or they could be wrong. Do you touch the wires or do you go test the breaker yourself to make sure?

Now, what if you question those 15 people as to the validity of their belief. Do they all say "hold on, let me check" or do they berate you and try to prove their belief using that belief as justification. Do they write signs and sayings and hold them up as proof the power is off?
If you challenge those signs and sayings do they attempt to justify their belief with more signs and sayings? Do they call up other people that also believe the power is off to try to validate their belief?
Do ANY of them actually take you to the breaker to prove the reality of their belief.
What happens if you take their advisement and touch the wires and don't get shocked? Are you convinced that their belief was real or do you still try to find out why you didn't get shocked on your own?
You go to the breaker and it is still in the on position? what you don't know is there was a storm that interrupted the power, right at the moment you touched the wires. Nobody knew that fact at the time.
Their belief is justified but not for the reasons they believed.
Until you have knowledge of the reality, the delusion is justified.

We live in a reality of chaos.
Things happen in reality that we cannot fathom.
This is due to the fact that we don't know all that is knowable.

At one time, volcanoes were thought to be God's wrath.
Now we know they are natural geological events.

Medical miracles happen.
There are a lot of things we don't know about how the body works or its capacity to heal itself.

The medical miracle I want to see is for a ten year amputee to suddenly wake one morning and find a fully functional limb.
An 80 year old with dentures suddenly growing all their teeth back over night.
For a God able to create the Universe, should be no problem at all?
Yet those things don't happen.

The fact that placebos work sometimes is an indication that our bodies/minds can cure us. Nobody knows the limit of the placebo effect.
Perhaps, we possess self-healing abilities that are uncharted.
What we can't do is manifest matter from nothing, like God did at creation.

In a very simple example take Eve for consideration.
Eve was created FROM the rib of Adam.
God used matter to create another human.
Much like science can grow a live specimen from certain stem cells.
God didn't manifest Eve from nothing.
Yet, He manifested everything from nothing during creation.
At the time he created Eve, there were no lessons to be taught to mankind because at that time, there was no sin, there was no mankind.
At that time, there is no reason God would need to work in mysterious ways. There is no reason He couldn't use his powers of creation to manifest Eve. Yet He chose to create Eve from Adam's rib.

Of course, that is wrong. Things like that do happen.

How about an ironworker who lost his eye when a piece of hot iron shot out from that big pot? His eye grew back the next day. It's in her book and pretty well documented.

It doesn't bother me that someone might have a different belief than I do. What does bother me is when these people act as if they know what I believe. Invariably they are wrong.

Choosing to ignore your own spiritual nature is like a man who chooses to acknowledge that he has a left arm. No matter how many times you tell him he can hold it with the other hand, he looks at you like you are from Mars, and then has the nerve to act all indignant about it.

I have seen some very good examples of what we Christians call miracles here. And yet I am still hearing, "Where's the pudding?"

Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest

It might be because some people need to experience the miracle first hand.
Yet, many of these same people tend to whole heartedly believe other testimonials from strangers during the nightly political news.

Personally, I don't need miracles to reinforce my belief in God. My belief is based on reason and it makes sense so that is all I really need.
I also don't need other's approval for my belief. I am quite content without it.

While many of my morals and values are based in Christianity I require no book to help me sort thru my life experiences. I don't seek guidance, I seek understanding. I don't look to mystical things to explain the reality around me. If I can't explain it, I see it as my own lack of knowledge of the reality before me.

While religion asks you to go deeper into faith, my belief asks me to go deeper into knowledge.
When people I know die. I don't see them as going to a better place because I don't see the place were in as all that bad. I don't need life after death to give my existence meaning. I am alive and that's enough for me.

Besides, I don't like pudding all that much.

I once had a woman believer in such things tell me that communication with the dead was "well documented." But of course it's not.

since my Grandfather, Grandmother, and Father are no longer among the living, I spoke to my mother who I believed would have known. She believes it had something to do with liver disease or issues involving the liver. According to her, many children are documented with liver disease as the cause of death from the 50's, 60's, 70's era. I guess it is even an issue at times in the 21st century.

but as far as the freezer temps and the rest of your questions, I have no answer that would be based upon facts. And depending upon a 3rd party answer from my mother, I am just basing it off from her that she must have had conversations with my Father, Grandfather, Grandmother, and plus the fact the mother of the son had been a member of my Grandfather's church. it could have been common knowledge back then. but I was young and things like that I would have no recollection of.

Maybe the proof is that we have pudding, and over proof spirits to put in it, mmm

Now you're talking sense. Not too much proof in that pudding though, or it will be too dangerous to eat. Flame off the vapours and get the custard. Yum!

And still thousands of miracles at Kathryn Kuhlman's services. Literally thousands.

And yet she died from complications from open heart surgery.

Hmmm... that would of been a great time for a "miracle ".

But, it didn't happen like many other supposed "miracles " didn't happen.

Fake miracles, fake pastors/teachers and fake women "preachers" are a stumbling block to the lost.

Quite a shame.

Why is death automatically a shame? Perhaps it is God's blessing to finally end suffering and bring one of His home.

But the thing is, a Creator would not be working to appease us anymore than we work to appease technology. Technology is created for our service, not the other way around.


Humans are made in His image and for His glory, not the other way around.

but that will be Greek to those without faith.

Who said death was a shame?