Throughout history there has always been an ongoing debate regarding God's role in society. Although there are many ideas and speculations, the one thing that is agreed upon is that there is a God. What role he plays in our everyday lives is something that is still argued about.
Two influential men had opposing views on the matter. On the one hand you had William Bradford who believed that the only role God played was to inflict punishment or rewards where they were due. Jean Domat believed that God could not be vengeful or give rewards because God was responsible for everyone acts.
Bradford believed that God was good, but he was vengeful of those who were arrogant, haughty or had little to no compassion for the suffering of others in peril. he believed that God punished them with disease, suffering and death. He writes as an example of a young man who was onboard his ship.
Buste de Jean Domat, juriszconsulte du XVIIIe siè...
DOMAT JEAN. Les loix civiles ed. A.D. 1756
BradfordThis young man had no sympathy for those who were sick and suffering on the trip and he openly told them how he wanted them to die so he would have the pleasure of throwing there corpses overboard and that when the voyage was ended he would have all of there worldly possessions for his own. Bradford believed that God punished this young man with a disease that killed him in a horrible way so that his was the first corpse to be thrown overboard.
Domat would say that was not God's wrath. Domat does not believe that God punishes or rewards. His way of thinking was kind of like God wrote a play and we are all just acting out what he wrote. Simply playing the parts that God wrote for us. Domat does not believe that there is freewill, he's basically...