Supposedly the "Adam and Eve" story is an allegory for how Humans have free will. God is also said to be omniscient, all knowing. God can see our futures, he knows what our every move will be in advance... that kinda nullifies "free will." If the future can be seen, then we do not actually have free will but just an illusion. How can we decide weather or not to eat an apple when it's already been decided that we will eat it?
2006-09-26 17:31:31 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
hmmm. I didn't know it was.
.
2006-09-26 17:41:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it is possible, by re-understand the concept of God is omniscient. God is all knowing, especially relative to humans, as He knows all the science and maths. He only knows those future when it is not affected by human free will. E.g. we do know tomorrow morning the Sun will appear in the east. Of course, unless someone go and bomb the Sun or the Earth by tomorrow morning...
However, when there is free will of human, the knowledge of future becomes uncertain, or conditional, and include multiple possibilities. God warned Adam and Eve because He know IF they eat, they will die. Thus, God did not exactly know "they will die" because He didn't know IF they would eat. However, since He knows the rules/laws/principles that He set forth in creating everything, so He do know what would happen if human free will chooses a choice.
By the way, the scripture does indicate what fruit, it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And also, the story is not a news report, as the person who wrote it down lived thousands of years after the event, and it was based on some revelations. So, don't take it tooo literally.
2006-09-27 01:01:22 · answer #2 · answered by back2nature 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I know that this issue sounds confusing at first sight. But your suggested answer to your own question implies that God acts as a human, and that the same laws apply in the Soul dimension, as they apply in physics. But the laws there are different.
We definitely have a free will. If we did not have, we would be just machines manipulated by someone else. The purpose of life is learning and growth, and this can be achieved only by having free will. That way we can make correct decisions, as well as mistakes, which are also correct, because we learn from them, best.
But every Soul has a different degree of free will. Some Souls decide to do entirely whatever they may have the opportunity to do. Other Souls come with a plan, or may have even a mission, like Jesus had. They still have free will, but they work their way through life around pre-programmed sign-posts.
God sees into the future because on the Soul plane time does not exist, but everything happens in the "now" which s like a perpetual movie showing all events taking place at the same time. On the physical plan we were given the perception of time, because that helps us to learn and grow incrementally.
Have I made it a little more clear?
If this topic interests you, please visit the Dhaxem website and click on "Rational Spirituality".
2006-09-27 02:25:14 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Humans are born with free will, naturally, but pretty much all of what happens in your life happens for a reason (the part about knowing the future etc...) but how you use it, if at all, is where free will comes in.
2006-09-27 00:36:57 · answer #4 · answered by illumiere1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nice question but just because God knows what will happen doesn't mean that you didn't choose it.
Didn't you just choose to ask that question?
However God knew you would ask it.
speaking of the apple: if you had a vision tonight, that your friend was going to give you an apple tomorrow, then why does that mean that your friend didn't choose to give you the apple? Your friend chose to do it, you just could see ahead and know it.
We do have free will, and every non believer chooses that.
2006-09-27 00:38:09 · answer #5 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nothing is predestined. Humans were created with free will, so we make our own choices, as Eve chose to eat the fruit (notice I said fruit, because the Bible didn't say what kind of fruit it was).
2006-09-27 00:33:58 · answer #6 · answered by rach 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We all have free will to do whatever we want to do. Just because God knows the outcome does not mean that we don't. He does not impose His will on us, rather He lets us have it to do what we will with it. Nothing is decided for us, as far as free will in this context, He just knows what we have done, are doing, and will do.
2006-09-27 00:39:55 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Perhaps we have made the decision before we were born.
Like making a movie. You know you're going to eat the apple because you wrote the script of you eating the apple before you were born.
Its way more fun to sit through a movie than to hold it in your hands.
2006-09-27 00:36:25 · answer #8 · answered by Roadpizza 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You don't even need a deity to rule out free will. Free will is incompatible with the laws of physics. Yes, we make choices, but we cannot make a choice independant of the sum total of our past experiences and our current mental state.
2006-09-27 00:36:02 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
That really rests on the issue of do you believe in the Abrahamic religons or not? (Abrahamic as in Christianity, Judiasm, and Islam)
Of course to me, the Adam and Eve story is a fairy tale.
2006-09-27 00:34:04 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
knowing the future is not synonymous with influencing it. when you know that your friend is going to order a Big Mac, did that take away her free will to order it?
2006-09-27 00:35:59 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋