Prophecy, Free Will and Evidence(?) for a God...

She then responded to that. I'll put what she said in quotation blocks, and respond piece by piece:

I brought up a chess game for a microcosm example. Couldn't "that future" contain the contemplation of a bunch of variables before a decision is made? And NO. They are NOT pre-determined. God allows the chess game to be played. He is NAP all the way. ...the reason He has Prophets not lightning bolts to your head! LOL

Again, the point is, if a god is all-knowing, it would know the collapse point of any/all decisions needing to be made. They would literally know not only all the possible futures, but also the actual future we each (seem to) choose for ourselves. If this god knows it, then it will happen, whether god likes the outcome or not. Thus it's predetermined. This of course includes the outcome of a chess game, a football match, a college career... everything.

In fact, I would imagine that it must be extremely frustrating to be a god. "Frustrating" actually isn't even a strong enough word. It must be hell to be a god... At least, a god that knows the future. Everything that is going to happen, you already know. Including your own godly actions... Nothing new could happen... No surprises... The sensation of being trapped would be excruciating. What would be the point, even, of existing in such a state?

Now, there is evidence of God all over the place... or at least some sort of "intercession from ETBeings"... or Angels. [She then includes the video below, presumably as an example of such a being...]

I watched the whole video and there is certainly no evidence of any god or angel or extra-terrestial being. Child prodigies exist all over the place and the source of their abilities is a question of science. The brain is as yet very much a mystery to us, though progress in understanding it is moving slowly but surely. Biologists and behavourial psychologists will discuss the issue of nature vs nurture for decades to come, I'm sure.

But even if one day we understand exactly where talent comes from, there will always be people claiming it comes from a god or an angel (or from aliens ;P) as a magical gift. The same goes for anything else that is hard to explain and understand. (Just look at evolution! The most studied theory in science ever and yet there are people who still don't "believe" it, as if it were still a question of belief...).

And of course confirmation bias will also always be there to subvert the brain... Something we are all victims of and should try and stay conscious of. I will definitely write a post about confirmation bias at some stage...

And all you need to do is turn to the back of the New Testament into the Book of Revelation and ask anyone, including yourself, how the frig' did St. John know this stuff which is taking place now, just under 2,000 years ago? FYI we are somewhere along in Ch. 9 or 10 right now... Pay specific attention to Rev. 14:9-11.

Revelations:
Would you mind citing specific prophecies? I don't have time at the moment to go looking for them. But I did read the 3 verses you cited.

It's basically an angel warning that if anyone worshipped "the beast", they would burn in hell forever, with all the angels and "the lamb" (I assume that is Jesus) looking on. Now that's heavenly love for you! "Worship and love me and only me. If you worship anything else, I will make you suffer for eternity." ... I mean, really... What kind of loving creator-father is that?

As for prophecies... I can predict a thousand things right now and given enough time, they are all likely to come true.

"The USA will have a black female president." ... "A meteor will hit the asian continent, causing death and destruction to half the world's population" ... "The human species will colonise the Andromeda galaxy."

Now we just wait. This post will be on the Steemit blockchain forever. Maybe one day I'll be known as a famous prophet ;P

Now if you don't take the idea of a Supreme Deity seriously, what is the point of this discussion? You might as well stick with the random accident theories, combined with Darwinism.

About random chance: It's simply true that random accidents happen all the time. Sometimes they go unnoticed, sometimes their results are truly happy and seem miraculous, other times they're terribly sad and seem like the devil himself interfering with fate.

But it's important to realise that the human mind is the one proscribing these descriptions to the events. We like to think of ourselves as special, so when we are very lucky/unlucky, we think of that event in terms of something being done to us, as though we were the main character in a book and the author thought it time for the plot to take an interesting turn...

Yet no evidence suggests that there is any such author. Rare, random things happen all the time. Every now and then, they happen to you. It's nothing special.

And the point of this discussion is to learn/discover new things, and to help others do the same =) ... You have inspired this entire post (for which I thank you) and now I know of that artist and will be doing more reading about her later.

I hope I have passed on some valuable knowledge to you and whoever else might be reading this. I especially encourage everyone to read more about confirmation bias and how it works... It's a sneaky one! Must stay vigilant! ;)