Is it possible to conciliate God's Omniscience and human free will?

Answer 1

No

Answer 2

Omniscience / God is a man made word. the only element "omni-x" is the universe it self. The universe is each the place. the respond is: this universe became no longer created purely for human beings " as maximum stupid Christians think of " there is only 6 - 7 billion human beings in the international, what with regards to the seven-hundred billion animals and bugs in the international? no longer to indicate the a million trillion + micro organisms. there's a purpose for all existence-varieties in the international besides as different planets in distant galaxies. The universe is infinitely great there for existence is infinitely becoming. we've a purpose of purposes ATM our purpose is to be certain what our purpose is. Our purpose is to be certain what we are right here for. yet i've got self assurance that we are going to in no way locate out our real purpose till we die. ( optimistically ) some human beings ask questions like what happens once you die? nicely they are very stupid because of the fact any smart man or woman might comprehend the only thank you to be certain that query is to die. yet another question is how did the huge bang ensue, back the only thank you to comprehend is that in case you have been there. the biggest conspiracy it incredibly is time-honored to guy is existence it self. we can't clarify the unexplainable. whilst will human beings start up believing that what they suspect is concepts-blowing ?

Answer 3

Sure. Why not?

If you put a rat into a maze, you know which path that he will eventually take, because you already know that the rat will try to find the cheeze, and there is only one way for the rat to get there (since you made the maze). From the rat's point of view, however, he freely choose his own path.

Answer 4

No. 'Omniscience' is logically incompatible with 'free will'. 'Omniscience', all by itself, is sufficient to put the lid on 'free will'; omnipresence and omnipotence are irrelevant. It is not necessary for god to intervene in order to negate 'free will' as a possibility. Omniscience negates free will all by itself.

If we really DO have 'free will', then an omniscient god is logically excluded. The logical fallacy lies in the premise that if god is omniscient, all outcomes are already known to god... everything that you think, decide and do... and everything that you WILL think, decide, and do.

For an omniscient being, all of existence over all of time is laid out as a tapestry before him... past, present and future, down to the smallest detail of material, of thought and of deed, and all is constantly in his awareness. There is no past, present and future from that perspective... there is only an eternal 'now'.

If that is the case, since god already knows everything that will happen, then everything is already decided... and as we go along through life, we are merely doing what has already been seen by god. Since god knows and sees everything that will happen, NOTHING that we think or do can be contrary to what god already sees and knows. We might THINK we have free will... but since we are merely acting out what god already sees and knows, this can be no more than an ILLUSION of free will.

Put another way, if you come to a point of decision, you have no choice but to take the path that god already knows you will take... there is no other option. That works all the way down the path of cause-and-effect... and, along the way, it even casts doubt on the validity of the concept of cause and effect. I don't want to get into that, though... thinking about that makes my hair hurt.

So, imagine that since before time began, since before the universe was created, god has 'known' that you would come to a point of decision at some spatial and temporal coordinate, and that faced with the possible paths A and B, you would take path A.

Now, during the course of your life, you arrive at that spatial and temporal coordinate where this choice exists. You evaluate the potential outcomes, and you have it in your head that you have 'free will', and thus, you are free to choose between path A and path B. However, since god is 'omniscient', and god 'knows' that you will take path 'A', then path B IS NOT an option... it IS NOT a matter of choice. OF NECESSITY, you WILL take path A. Not 'must'... not 'can'... you WILL take path A. You DO NOT HAVE a choice. Path B is NOT an option... it is not even a POSSIBILITY. You can only have the ILLUSION that you are free to choose.

So, either god is omniscient OR we have free will. It is QUITE IMPOSSIBLE for BOTH of these conditions to coexist.

The only way out of this logical dilemma is to limit god's power; i.e., start taking away things that god can see and know, until we get to a point where free will BECOMES a possibility. But when we start doing that, then he ceases to be omniscient... and thus ceases to be a 'supreme being'.

So... free will is an impossibility concomitant with an omniscient diety. The following sums up the possibilities:

1. There is no omniscient diety... therefore, the whole argument is stupid and irrelevant.

2. IF we possess 'free will' AND god exists, THEN, of necessity, it is IMPOSSIBLE that god is omniscient. (This does not preclude the notion of 'god'... it just means that he can't be as 'supreme' as one might think he is... or wish him to be.) You are (logically) obliged to acknowledge that god CAN NOT BE all knowing... and since omniscience is one of the things that makes god 'all powerful', then this means that god CAN NOT BE omnipotent, either.

3. IF god exists AND god is omniscient THEN, OF NECESSITY, it is IMPOSSIBLE that that we have free will, and you are (metaphorically speaking) nothing more than a piece on god's eternal game board; and, thus, "... man is not responsible for his actions."

Personally, I vote for number 1. You can pick any one you want... but YOU MUST PICK ONE, because there are NO OTHER possible outcomes... NO OTHER logically valid choices.

It is unfortunate (for the Abrahamic death cults of desert monotheism) that the concepts of god were solidified as dogma a few thousand years before the philosophical discipline of 'logic' was dreamed up by the Greeks. Those that concocted the religion did not have access to the intellectual tools that would have enabled them to realize that they had 'screwed the pooch' with respect to assigning god's impossible attributes. It wasn't until the 4th century that this logical impossibility garnered serious attention, and churchmen got their theological 'dancin' shoes' on, trying to weasel their way out of the logical dilemma.

They did not succeed, and this issue continues to be debated even 'til this day. This logical dilemma (and the resulting 'cognitive dissonance') was a key element in some of the various 'heresies' that were spawned in the early days of Christianity.

However, the simple observation that these impossible beliefs still exist shows that this does not seem to have been a very big hindrance, under the simple expediency that "There is no problem so big that we cannot ignore it, until it will go away." Too bad for them, though... it DOESN'T go away.

Corporate religion is helped along by the fact that most 'believers' do not employ logic or critical thinking skills; heck... that's why they're believers in the first place. If they employed logic and critical thinking, they WOULD NOT BE believers. So, even though these concepts create a logical impossibility, it does not seem to present a significant problem for them.

Answer 5

Yes, it is possible to reconcile the two.
Here it is Biblically:

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Answer 6

I believe you mean "reconcile."

And no, it's impossible.

If god is god, then free will is a delusion because god is all-powerful. But if humans have free will, that means we have power -- and why would god give away a share of his power?

Answer 7

sure -- but only if you clarify your terms. humans have freedom of choosing in any given situation. though god knows what we will choose, that doesn't change the fact that we don't know and are not limited by what he knows. i can tell what a kid is going to do before the kid does it, but if i don't tell him and he does it, how has he lost his freedom to choose his own action...

Answer 8

God's "All knowingness" has nothing to do with free will.

Answer 9

nope

Answer 10

not