Maurice, You wrote, " If everything was soundly based on cause and effect, no free will, simply how we behave is a combination of external effects and the way our bodies are made, then we could all cope so much easier without being subject to all the malarkey."
Here's the Bible message, spiritual things(speaking of relationship between God and man) are based on" free will" and "cause and effect". Man makes a decision(free will) and there is a resulting "cause" . For example, God says, "Rev 21:6 And He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
Rev 21:7 "He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.(decisions- efforts on man's part)
Rev 21:8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."(person choses to be against God - there is an effect).
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.(anyone who is thirsty is invited by God).
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (sin pays a wage, it is spiritual death, the effect)
A person who exercises his free will and chooses(comes to) Christ receives the free gift of salvation(Holy Spirit, the water which gives life) from God. Man is then satisfied of that for which he has been seeking(thrist). This is cause and effect based on free will, based on the Bible.
Hope you have a nice break, I did, very short.
God bless, David
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