Do we really have free will if God is omniscient?

Question

If He knows everything, he knows what we will do before we do it, so is that really 'free will'?

Answer 1

You are looking at it wrong.

If i am watching you carry a large box that obstructs your vision and I see that you may trip over a hose if you turn right I am not making you turn right or trip over the hose. I am just aware of the possibility.

I also may know that if you turn left you will fall over a cliff.

Again just because I am aware of all of the possible outcomes does not impinge on your ability to exercise your freedom of choice.

God simply provides all of the options and is aware of all of the possible outcomes.

You still make all of the choices, and end up dealing with the consequences.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 2

I'll be the only one (so far) to agree with you and say that we do not have free will. Not only does he know everything, it's God that chooses us. My own analogy: go to a pet shelter and pick out the pet of your choosing. The animal goes home with you and loves you and you love it. The rest of the animals that you did not select, had only a passing notion that you are even there, do not know you, and could not care less whether you returned to pick them up. The only one that you really mattered to was the animal that you selected as your own. Is that animal a robot? The ball was in your court the entire time, and yet the animal and you have a great relationship. I don't see how this can be so difficult to extrapolate into the religious arena of free will. The other animals never "chose" you at all. You were in charge, as God is in charge of his creation.

Answer 3

Yep. He gave us free will. Just because he may know how we might act or the outcomes...dosen't mean that we don't have free will. Haven't you pretty much did whatever you wanted to do after you got out from under your parent's grasp? The choices are yours. There is no invisible had behind the scene moving you. I am sure that if God wanted to move us, this world would be a very wonderful place to live in. However, he made us like him, with free will, so we have a not so great of world to live in.

Answer 4

Today, I saw someone in a hurry running up to the door of a shop I knew to be closed. Because this person was in a hurry, I knew this person would pull on the door, and then walk away steamed. And sure enough, that's what happened.

My foreknowledge of the event in no way touched on the person's freedom to act. And so it is with omniscience. If you know something, the actors are still free to choose.

Answer 5

Free will is the freedom to choose how you want to perceive things. If someone cuts you off in the car, you have the free will to ignore the insodent or ram his car with yours. The choice to see God as omniscient is a a choice you are free to make, because you have free will.

Answer 6

Mixing christianity and free will is a mistake. As an ex christian I know that the church do not approve of you questioning faith. This is a basic right for free will is it not? To be able to question what you don't understand? Christians do not really have free will because their deity is a wrathful one who will punish them for doing something against his will, ie the 10 commandments and the 7 deadly sins. Free will means you would be able to choose what you do but christians have been indoctrinated from early childhood on how to live their lives. So effectively they have no free will but do the will of the church. It took a long time fore me to 'reprograme' myself and break away from the church fully. I now do have free will, I chose to think for myself and live my own life, we are here for such a short time so why waste it living in fear of sinning and incurring the wrath of a petty and childish 'god'?

Answer 7

Nope, yet another example of the logical hole people dug for themselves when they came up with the all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing god schtick.

Edit:
And it seems to me that most of those answering don't really understand the question.

I spent the better part of three years at University on the problem of free will and that was without the concept of an all knowing, all powerful god, add that into the mix and it would be clear that free will is an illusion even more so than it already is in a deterministic sense.

Answer 8

Omniscient means knowing all. Omnipresent means being every where and omnipotent means all-powerful.
According to Christian belief we have freedom of choice. So God might know what we are going to do but he has given us the choice. And look what a mess we're making of it!

I love the true story about the vicar's young son who called for father to come up to his bedroom. 'Daddy, is it true that God is everywhere?' 'Yes, and now you have to go to sleep.'
5 minutes later came a call from the bedroom. The father went upstairs, 'What is it?' 'Is God in this room?'
'Yes, he is. But now you really have to go to sleep.'
5 minutes later another cry from the bedroom. 'What's the matter now?' 'Can you tell God to go away? I can't sleep with someone else in the room.'

Answer 9

God knowing all your next moves is in no way an impediment to you exercising your free will.
If I can take the liberty of using the example of day to day living.
You know that by the end of the day it will get dark and the day will end at midnight. The next day will similarly come and go.
In the mean time you are free to work and play as hard as you can.
You can sit in one place and do nothing all day, you are free to choose.
Yes, you should be prepared for the consequences of each.
(An over active or a sedentary lifestyle)

Answer 10

it is free will to us, because everthing that is going to happen, has already happend in the bible somewhere. we can either choose to do what we want to do, or we can do what God said to do when it happened in the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (Whole Chapter)
[Eccl 1:10; 2:12; 3:15; 6:10] That which has been is that which will be,And that which has been done is that which will be done.So there is nothing new under the sun.


Ecclesiastes 1:9 (Whole Chapter)
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.(NIV)


Ecclesiastes 1:9 (Whole Chapter)
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. (New living translation)