davening

The Jewish High holy days happened recently, so I’m going to say all this…let us assume that in order to repent or atone for something, the following conditions must be true:

1. You did an action(s) and at some point (before, during, or after doing these actions), you decide that these things were bad/ you regret doing them/ you wish to repent/atone for them.
2. It must have been the case that you could have done something different than what you actually did do.   

Assuming the above argument, consider the following:

1. If God is all knowing, than God knows everything you have ever done, are doing, and will ever do.
2. In order for God to know everything you will ever do in the future, it must be the case that you cannot do anything different than what God knows you will do, that is, all your actions are predetermined.
3. If you cannot do anything different than what God knows you will do/ if everything you do/did was predetermined, than you do not have free will, (or your free will is an illusion).
4. If you had no free will/ if everything you did was predetermined, then you are or were not really in control over what you did, or were not responsible what you want to repent for, or God made you do or allowed you to do what you want to repent for, and this idea negates the need or logic of repenting to God (for what God made you do).

1. But if you actually could have done something different than the action(s) you want to repent for, than your actions are/were not predetermined.
2. If your actions were not predetermined, than God did not know that you would do what you did before you did it.
3. If God did not know what you did before you did it, than God is not all knowing, and a God that is not all knowing is not worthy of being prayed to.

If God is all-powerful, than God can or could have prevented you from doing the bad things you may want to repent for.

1. The fact that you actually did bad things means that either:
   1. God is not all-powerful/ he cannot prevent you from doing bad things.
   2. God is, yes, able to prevent you from doing bad things, but he still choose to allow you to do the bad things you did.

If (1) above is true, God is not worthy of being prayed to, but if (2) is true, than God is immoral, and an immoral God is not worthy of being prayed to.

Suppose we argue that God could prevent you from doing bad things if he wanted to, but he does not because God must not control you so that you can have free will.  But this still does not explain why God does not make it so that you only do good things while also, at the same time, operating under the feeling that you have free will; this may be a logical contradiction, but if God cannot make you only do good things while at the same time having the feeling that you choose to only do good things because of your free will when you could have chosen to do bad things, than God is not all powerful and/or God is immoral, and a God that is not all powerful and/or immoral is not worthy of being prayed to.

1. If God is all good/ omnibenevolent/ if everything God does/ does not do must be good, than the fact that God does not prevent/ allows/ causes you to do bad things must somehow be good.
2. If God’s decision to allow, cause, or not prevent you from doing bad things must be good, than the “bad” things you did were/are actually good
3. Therefore, it would be a logical contradiction to repent or be sorry for things that were/ are actually good.

1. But of course we know that you should not do bad things, nor should you make up arguments for how the bad things could actually be good, because then people will think you are crazy or that you think it is ok to do what they know to be bad or that you will actually do what they know to be bad.
2. If you are smart enough to know to not make up illogical arguments such as the one above, than the concept of whether God likes or dislikes what you do is irrelevant or a moot point; you already know what behaviors are good or bad without the need for sacred literature or the need to think there is a God.