How can 'god' be all knowing, if you have free will?

Question

If you believe in free will, then you have to deny that god does not know all and see all.

If you are given two choices, take the apple or the cookie and god knows absolutely (because he knows everything that is going to happen) that you are going to take the cookie, then you have no free will.

Simply put, if he knows your choice = no free will.
If he doesn't know, then you have free will = he isn't all knowing.

God could guess that you are going to take the cookie or even make an educated guess that you will take the cookie, but you would only have free will if god could be WRONG.

This doesn't disprove the existence of god, but if you believe that people have free will then it means that god does NOT know everything.

If the reverse is true and we have no free will, then we are not responsible for any of our actions and we are just doing what god wants us to do, including sinning. That would mean that we are all just pawns in his game.

*Thanks to Duck Phup

Preacher - Your answer is a cop out. We're all too stupid to understand god and he can do anything he wants? That's pathetic.

And if that were true then how could you claim to know ANYTHING about this god? If he were that much more intelligent, than you wouldn't even able to fathom how he would want you to act. By your logic, humans would be so ignorant that they wouldn't even be able to understand the concept of 'god'.

Answer 1

If I know you.. really know you... and say that I know you like strawberry but not chocolate or vanilla... and I see that you are offered a choice of strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla ice cream... you have a choice.. but do you really think that you will choose chocolate or vanilla?...

God knows each one of us even better than that.. he knows what each of our choices will be... he gave us free will to choose as we will... his knowing what our choices will be does not take away our free will...

this world is a gift and a test... a gift of a body... and a test to see if we will do all that God has commanded... the test is not for God to know anything.. it is for US to know... so that when we are judged.. we will know that the judgement is a just one.

Answer 2

You are using faulty reasoning. You are trying to equate the thinking of men with the thinking of God. the two do not mix no matter how much you shake them together. Man has the free will to decide between right and wrong, to obey or to disobey. God is the creator and sustainer of all; therefore, his knowledge an intelligence is beyond anything that we can imagine. Our logic and God's logic are light years apart. We were given free will so that we could be more than biological robots and so that we could take responsibility for our actions. We were given free will so that we could grow spiritually at a rate that was commiserate with our unique individual designs. As you have probably noticed no two humans are alike, and that includes identical twins. Jesus loves you and he wants you to be a unique person, but he wants you to grow according to his rules and not your own.

Answer 3

This is a good paradox, that most religious people will try to explain away without addressing the problem. It is called a religious contradiction, and they are everywhere. If god knows, then the future is planed, and in order for something to be known if it has not happened, then it must happen, and the other options can not be taken. If you can make a choice, then the future is not certain, and can not be known. The true believers will ignore fact, and try to twist it.

Answer 4

People have free will and God knows what you're going to do before you do it. This occurs because of the way we, humans, experience time and the way God experiences time. We experience time in 1 way. We can only go forward. But God more fully experiences time. He can go forward and backwards. This is how God knows everything. He is everywhere and at every Time.
It is the same way in which we can only be in one place but God is everywhere. The bible says God is light. In theory, if an object traveled at the speed of light, the distance from any one point to another point is 0. This is not proven, it is a conclusion from Einstein's theory of relativity. Einstein's theory says that space and time are inter-related. In essense, this means, the object is everywhere since at the speed of light, your distance to anywhere else is 0. The faster you go, the slower time becomes and at the speed of light, time actually stops. Look up Einstein's theory of relativity, in regards to spacetime, the faster you go, the shorter the distance becomes. For example, if I'm walking at 5 miles per hour and I go 100 miles, I just actually walked 100 miles. However, if I'm going close to the speed of light and I went 1 mile, that 1 mile really equates to 100 miles in the real world. You can conclude from the theory that at the speed of light, the object is everywhere and at every time.

Answer 5

Because even thought you have free will god supposedly is all knowing and he knows what you are going to choose. God doesn't make you choose what you do, you still get to do that. God just knows the bidness. I think free will is just your ability to choose. Does God choose the cookie for you? No one knows, but for the most part i would say YOU are the one that chooses the cookie and God just already KNOWS which one yo uare going ot choose. Just because god is all knowing doesn't mean you have no free will.

Answer 6

Your very argument proves the existence of God. You think in a typical way that all people think ,.Limited to what we experience.God is not limited to time .He has no beginning and no end.He knows ahead of time what we will do even though we have free will.One example is all of the prophecies foretelling Jesus written in the Torah thousands of years before Jesus came on the earth. Another example is the prophecy of Israel returning as a nation.Again it was written thousands of years ago and came about in 1948.

Answer 7

God knows everything u are living in his past God give u a choice if u want to choice him or go ur own way that why we are here living no this earth if u have god u won't need free will why would want free will and might go to hell won't want God and know that u are going to Heaven

Answer 8

God gave us free will, He knows what would hapen in every circumstance and the outcome of every choice ever made or to be made. He exists well out of this linear timeline, and is all knowing. He knows what we are going to do, but gives us the chance to do the right thing.

Answer 9

The idea that God is all knowing is a belief held by the followers of said faith. With that in mind I think its imoportant to approach this question subjectively; logic based off of basic and fundamental facts.

Now if god were absolute, omnipresent, and thus all knowing, by your logic it would seem as though there were no free will. But this conclusion is slightly invalid because it doesn't work both ways. I.e. basic algebra - Both sides of an quadratic equation must be perfectly equal or else the entire soltuion is invalid.

So lets work the problem backwards...
Free will = there IS free will, God does not know all.
No Free will = there is no free will, God does know all.
this is very broad; debating on this scale would be futile because of the fact that it does not draw a contextual conclusion that is applicable for all understandings of God.

I also want to add that, free will and how it correlates to "God" can co-exist peacfully and satisfy both ends of the spectrum. Its what one chooses to beleive that ultimately decides what path you will walk.

But lets consider, if you will, that both concepts are slightly misinterpreted. After all homosaipens are only human. We have made countless idiotic decisions in the past and we are likely to make more. - that doesn't nessesarily conclude that you or anyone else are absolutley wrong regarding the things they know, We are all products of our enviorment and thus utilize the resources that are availble.

I ask you- What exactly would lead one to believe that even if God were to know all that there is no such thing as free will??
Let us work from what we know...

Everyday we wake up and decide numerous actions in numerous situations. now if god were to know our action before we made them, how would that deminish the idea that God knows all? Everyday we continue to wake from beds and make a decison every three seconds. You must admit, some things are reactionary and force of habit. I.e. Taking showers eating, urinating and so forth...Its hard to debate the theory of free will when it occurs on a regular basis. Did you or did you not decide to actually ask that question? Or what you wanted to eat this morning?

With that in mind, How would God play a role in this... for those who believe in him...

Going by my understanding of Christianity- we are the children of God, and our actions are all interconnected and woven into the masterful tapestry of his (or her -sorry ladies) grand design. I garauntee that if you ask any mother her prediction of her childs' actions in a partricular situation, her description of her childs actions would be very close to what might actually happen. She's only human so there does exist a realm for error. Yet she would still be realively clairvoyant and perceptive to predicting her childs actions. i.e. Playing video games before going to bed as opposed to having a sincere conversation with there parents.

These are actions and behaviors that only a mother or close relative would know- someone who is very close and familar with that person and their habits. Who's to say that God would be so out of touch with his children that he is unable to predict there actions in a particular situation. But that doesn't nullfy the fact that we DO make decisions single everyday. We inadverntly decide what we do with our lives, with or without the support of a higher power, influeintial people, and/or others factors that may be involved. I like to think that "God" does know to everything to a certain extent everything else is up to us to decide. He'll accomidate the rest so long as you meet him half way.

The bottom line is becuase we as people have the ability to choose what we want to believe. There exists the eternal internal struggle: Whether to believe or not to believe. We can find ways to support either argument and yet it would still come down to free will and what we choose to believe. Choice can sometimes be difficult- I still have trouble deciding on which ice creams I like and why I like them? Let alone a career, college and the possiblity of living over seas, etc. I realize people have trouble trying to decide where they stand on certain issues and in many cases become passive, non-chalant towards many poient issues that effect many people. I think its good to open minded and find some sort of middle ground. Don't be afraid to make a stand on either side- no matter what you choose to believe. Humans make mistakes, but its imperative to remain consistantly openminded even if we don't beleive what others hold as truths. Vis-à-vis that we manifest our understandings so that we may inturn grow as individuals. I'm not sure if I wrote this because I chose to or if it were an act of god in "it's" magnificsent plan.

Answer 10

Webster's Dictionary defines free will as "voluntary choice or decision". This God can know the out come of our decisions with out making them for us. You are talking about pre destination not free will.