If God is omnipotent/omniscient, how does he create freewill?

Question

Premise - God super being that he is, is all powerfull, space, time etc no bother to the big G. However we have choice - 'freewill' - we alter our own destiny. Given that God creates man, and knows everything, how can he not know exactly what you will do?

Suggestion1. God isnt omniscient. Interesting...... (boy, talk about a slippery slope....)

Suggestion2. God is a bit odd, and could do with a new hobby.

Thoughts?

(please no: - sympathy/threats of devils sticking pitchforks in my bottom/evocations to Allah/hopes for seeing lights etc) Just some rational logic would be nice.....

Great stuff. Bit depressed by the God is omnipotent therefore he can create freewill.

Actually guys hold on a minute. Freewill surely means that we can make the decision, and only us and that it is ours at the point in time. Not Gods. Freewill means God MUST not know what we will choose. If he does, he must have known when he created us, and could have created us to make whatever decision he desired.

Therefore omniscience and Freewill are mutually exclusive. If this is wrong please help me out here - no more 'he can do anything he likes so there's no point us pathetic humans worrying about it' arguments.

(so far logicians 7 theists 0 - well it is world cup time)

Answer 1

I have some thoughts on the subject; however, it's an observation of the Christians perspective of free will.

The Christians' tell us we have freewill. They say that a being must have freewill to be happy. The omnibenevolent God did not wish to create robots, so he gave humans freewill to enable them to experience love and happiness. But the humans used this freewill to choose evil, and introduced imperfection into God's originally perfect universe. God had no control over this decision, so the blame for our imperfect universe is on the humans, not God.

Here is why the argument is weak. First, if God is omnipotent, then the assumption that freewill is necessary for happiness is false. If God could make it a rule that only beings with freewill may experience happiness, then he could just as easily have made it a rule that only robots may experience happiness. The latter option is clearly superior, since perfect robots will never make decisions which could render them or their creator unhappy, whereas beings with freewill could. A perfect and omnipotent God who creates beings capable of ruining their own happiness is impossible.

Second, even if we were to allow the necessity of freewill for happiness, God could have created humans with freewill who did not have the ability to choose evil, but to choose between several good options.

Third, God supposedly has freewill, and yet he does not make imperfect decisions. If humans are miniature images of God, our decisions should likewise be perfect. Also, the occupants of heaven, who presumably must have freewill to be happy, will never use that freewill to make imperfect decisions. Why would the originally perfect humans do differently?

The point remains: the presence of imperfections in the universe disproves the supposed perfection of its creator.

Answer 2

God designed feww will to allow humans to follow there own path. The made man to worship him and run the earth as his representivitve, but he doesn't want robots. Free will gives humans the right to deside to worship and follow god, or not to. God could make humans obay him, but he doesn't want the worship, so much as he wants the desier of worship for him, think of it like this, A thank you isn't a manadotory when someone does something, but you should and they get more satifaction from the idea that someone noticed and acknowlaged the act more then the words themselves. God also has the devil, God gave the devil power over certain acpects of the world, if he was omnipresent/powerful and used it, earth would have no reason to exsist becouse it would be like a book, everything has allready be planned and your life would be like a computer program.

God does know what is going to happen and allows it, he knows your desisons and may want you chose a different path, but true power comes from not using it, he is dissaponted in humans actions at times, but accepts them.

Back to worship, forced worship is not true worship, but worship which is chosen and volenteery is true and powerful worship which is the kind god desiers.

This is a very comlex subject that theologans discuss and debate for centeries, this explination scatchs the surface and leave much more to discuss and explain. It's a preview to the big picture.

Answer 3

Lets examine God's idea of freewill, this how i see it.
definition of freewill:
freedom of self determination and action independent of external causes.

I have been given the freewill to make choices and what are my choices concerning God, i have the choice to go to Heaven or Hell. Some choice if i don't believe in God or Jesus, i can suffer an eternity in Hell, so my Freewill is this, if i don't believe i will punish you forever. I don't think that matches the definition of Freewill.
It's like me walking into a bank and say you have the freewill to give me all your money, but if you don't I will kill you. Do you think you really have a choice.
So any tyrant obviously, gives their people the freewill to do as they say or die.Hmmm interesting freedom of choice.
So in conclusion if God is real did He make a mistake giving freewill(which by definition it is not), considering He can't control or influence He's own children, but if that is true that would make him fallible and less than perfect.

Answer 4

Here is the tricky part about this question.

If we have the power to change the future and everything happens because we "choose" certain "choices" at certain times, then how does God have a plan if he/she doesn't have anything to do with our humans choices and we are ultimetely the only one that can change the future??? If God just sits on the side libne and watches us, then why would we worship it? Why even try and have a relationship with this peeping tom like God? What is the point then to have a God? Is there such a God?

I cannot really answer this question...The universe and nature is ultemetely the closest we can get to understand God.

Answer 5

You have entered the classic battle of predetermination versus free will. Some believe that God, in knowing all, has set us down a path in which we encounter "choices". Our "choices" have already been known and therefore He knows exactly what we will do and if we will enter Heaven or Hell. The Free Will theory is that He knows what will happen, but does give us control of our lives. This is the premise to the Roman Catholic and Episcopal religions along with several others. If you're still interested, speak with a variety of religious officials, they're usually a good indicator.

Answer 6

Omniscience and freewill are NOT mutually exclusive.

You can predict that thiests will disagree with the point made in this question (for example), and be right. (Okay, you aren't omniscient, so this doesn't fit EXACTLY, but stick with it!) But the fact that you predicted thiests would disagree didn't actually have any effect on them disagreeing. They would have done that whether you expected them to or not.

So it could be that God knows what we are going to do without influencing us.

Therefore, freewill and an omniscient God coexist happily.

(I am a thiest logician)

Answer 7

God created free will in man in the garden of eden. Man fucked it up within about five minutes, should an omniscient God not have seen that coming? Maybe he did, and chose in his infinite love to punish Adam and Eve for doing something that he foresaw and (being all powerful) brought about?

There are far too many contradictions. I think if humanity wishes to continue having a God, people need to get over theirpresent views of what a higher power is supposed to be about

Answer 8

You answered your own question. It is because he is omnipotent and omniscient that he can create free will.

I think what you are wrestling with is the constraints that free will place on the human condition.

Think of it like this...God knows the beginning and the end but when he gave the gift of Free Will, he gave you the ability to choos and search for the path to the end. Therefore the length of time that it takes you to get there will be up to you.

M.C.

Answer 9

Being All-Knowing doesn't mean you have anything to do with the Choice another makes. It simply means you Know which choice they will make. I see it more like a person watching a movie for the 10th time. You know what's going to happen, you know the choices available and you know which one the actor will choose... does that mean you had anything to do with the choice they made?
I know, poor example, but it was the only thing I could come up with in such a short time. lol

Answer 10

According to monotheistic religions, their god created everything, which would include the universe and time itself. It doesn't make sense to suppose that a god who could create time could then be limited by that time - He must exist outside of time and therefore must be able to perceive all of time. Hence one single future must exist - No alternative future is possible, to the one god knows about. Therefore, according to monotheistic religions, we have no free will to choose our future. The future is unalterable.

IOW: An omniscient god is incompatible with free will.