Burl

Your athiesm is indeed a product of free will. There are logical deductions which use syllogism to draw a firm conclusion which is not predicated on free will. The need for a prime mover is an excellent example. However, there are very few questions where pure logic is useful. Most deductions are rational (not logical) and are formed by free will. Evidence is either chosen, discarded or ignored/omitted based on free will. A T-list of pro and con arguments are drawn up by free will. Confirmation bias, prejudices are all end products of free will and free will is central to drawing a conclusion by weighing the evidence using free will. This rationality is a deconstruction of your "just do" process. As you have demonstrated, the use of free will is frequently unconscious and is involved in what evidence you choose to discount, ignore or simply do not allow to enter your awareness.

Atheism is not 'moving on' from theism. It is intellectual cowardice. It is using free will to ignore obvious evidence because it does not fit into one's preconceptions.

No, it would not. One of the benefits of theism is that these illogical infinite recursions are stopped at the earliest possible instance. Athiesm is where these silly ramifications prolferate.

I think gods having free will is definitional. All gods are theistic. The concise OED definition you posted does NOT say theism only refers to personally revealed gods. Actually, the Encyclopedia of Philosophy would be a better reference than an abridged version of the OED. We need better and more nuanced definitions.

Right. Deists are theists. Plus the panentheists, pantheists and polytheists. All postulate a supreme being who brought everything into existence via free will.

All three are types of theism. Your private definitions of will and theism are making you unclear.

The major ramification of all actions (not everything) having a prior cause is that it points to the existence of a theistic god; a prime mover or first cause from which all others descend.

Only rarely can any action be considered independent of cause, so I agree with you per your definition.

So what is your definition of free will?

You have free will to give to the corner panhandler or not. You further have free will to intend either choice for any number of reasons. You have free will to further imagine what the panhandler thinks of your choice, and what they imagine your intentions might be. The opposite of free will is instinct. Would you argue that all thought is purely instinctive?

Gordon Allport had a demonstration of this question. Work up a good mouthful of saliva and swallow it. Then do the same thing, but spit it into a clean glass and then drink it. The disgust at swallowing the saliva from the glass is because the personal boundry was violated.

Free will is intention. To forgive or not to forgive. To love or not to love. To accept or to challenge.

Dec. 10, 2017 Mark 1:1-8The Message (MSG) John the Baptizer 1 1-3 The good news of Jesus Christ—the Message!—begins here, following to the letter the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Watch closely: I’m sending my preacher ahead of you; He’ll make the road smooth for you. Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road smooth and straight! 4-6 John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey. 7-8 As he preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.”

Dec. 3, 2017 Mark 13:24-37The Message (MSG) 24-25 “Following those hard times, Sun will fade out, moon cloud over, Stars fall out of the sky, cosmic powers tremble. 26-27 “And then they’ll see the Son of Man enter in grand style, his Arrival filling the sky—no one will miss it! He’ll dispatch the angels; they will pull in the chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole. 28-31 “Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner. And so it is with you. When you see all these things, you know he is at the door. Don’t take this lightly. I’m not just saying this for some future generation, but for this one, too—these things will happen. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out. 32-37 “But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father. So keep a sharp lookout, for you don’t know the timetable. It’s like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his servants in charge, each assigned a task, and commanding the gatekeeper to stand watch. So, stay at your post, watching. You have no idea when the homeowner is returning, whether evening, midnight, cockcrow, or morning. You don’t want him showing up unannounced, with you asleep on the job. I say it to you, and I’m saying it to all: Stay at your post. Keep watch.”

Israel took that attitude in the Bible several times and it always failed. Read the ending of Judges, a book which documents the gradual degeneration and dissolution of the Hebrew government. A history better remembered than repeated

There is more evidence of alien abductions and the yowie than of Paul's sexuality. An absurd and intellectually null subject, and probably the one most responsible for the marginalization of Spong's better ideas.