my question is this: If God is indeed omniscient, why did he bother to create the "bad" people if he already knew they would be bad? Why would he create people that will just end up going to hell? Or is God not all-knowing after all?
2006-11-30 07:54:30 · 31 answers · asked by Nick F 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Does giving us free choice somehow mean that he doesn't know what we will do? so does that mean that God isn't omniscient after all?
2006-11-30 07:57:52 · update #1
If God gave us freewill doesn't that mean he can't be "all-knowing"?
He either is all knowing and knows what what we will do or isn't.
2006-11-30 07:59:21 · update #2
Soory most of your answers are not well thought out, God is either ALL knowing, or he isn't, he can't be both. Giving humanity "freewill" can only mean that God ISN'T "all knowing".
2006-11-30 08:01:46 · update #3
That's an excellent question and one of the reasons I argued he is not all-knowing. He would not create people he knew were just going straight to hell. In fact, what's the point of giving people free will at all if you know just what they're going to do with it? I like to think he believes in our capacity to choose good over evil. We all have the same opportunity, but by his own choice, not even he knows for sure what we will do with it.
2006-11-30 08:03:40 · answer #1 · answered by Caritas 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You make an excellent case, but let's make sure we're singing from the same sheet of music. Free will meaning ability to look to God for salvation. The Bible does not support free will if you investigate it at all. The implication is exactly the opposite, a people so tainted by sin that we cannot of our own will, accept God. I know that's not a comfortable thought, but I don't think of the Bible as a sugar-coated gospel either.
So now He can be omniscient, he didn't create man bad, we fell into sin on our own. If God knew this would happen, so what? He hasn't condemned the entire world, He provided His Son to save the ones He predestined. I hope that makes sense, I believe it answers your question without a tap-dance anyway.
2006-12-02 00:56:29 · answer #2 · answered by ccrider 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God is omniscient, and the creator of all things. However, he did not create evil. Evil is the absence of God, just as darkness is the absence of light.
He created people with a free will to choose if we want to conform to His good and perfect will, or sin, do evil, and cause destruction. We have a free will, but he already knows what we are going to do. He knows our every thought before we think it. He gave us the dignity of choice, but there are no surprises for God.
Who would believe in a God that didn't know everything? That's what makes Him God.
God didn't create "bad" people or "good" people.We are born sinners and we remain sinners until we repent and ask for God's forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no truly "good" person because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
The great thing is that we don't have to be perfect! God forgives. Not that that's any excuse, but we can't earn salvation or the title a "good" person.
2006-11-30 16:01:52 · answer #3 · answered by c8lin 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God created mankind to have fellowship with Him and to love them and be loved by them in return, and to look after creation. He knew in advance that Adam and Eve would disobey Him and bring sin into the world. God doesn't make bad people, sin does. It had to have broken God's heart to watch Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, knowing the misery that sin would cause all of mankind. But God also gave Adam and Eve free will -the same with us all- instead of making robots who would do everything He asked. Robots are not capable of love and fellowship, human beings are because God created us that way. Let us also not forget that there has been ongoing spiritual warfare since Satan and 1 third of the angels rebelled against God and were cast out. God has also provided a means of escaping the eternal punishment of hell for us, through His Son Jesus Christ. No one needs to go there, if they accept Christ as Lord and Saviour into their lives. If you read the Gospels you'll see that Hell was actually created for Satan and his demons-Matt 25:41. Hell was not intended for mankind, but those who follow in the footsteps of Satan and his demons by rejecting Him and continuing in rebellion against Him will follow their leader -Satan- into the everlasting fires.
God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Those who choose in this life to reject Him will go to the destination of their own choosing. Imagine the sadness of God to watch His creatures reject Him and deny Him. Even though He knows how we will choose, He still allows us to make that choice and suffers a broken heart each time the wrong eternal choice is made. Thus there is free will. If He didn't allow us to exercise our free will and make our choice then we'd be those robots I spoke of before. You just don't seem to understand that the Almighty can still be omniscient while letting His creatures choose their eternal destination. If Hell was the only alternative then I'd agree with you, but it isn't.
2006-11-30 16:13:21 · answer #4 · answered by utuseclocal483 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will and All-knowing are two different things!! They don't mean the same thing at all. Nobody was born bad...we were all born free of sin and given the freedom to make our own choices. Even if God KNOWS what we are going to do (because he is all-knowing), it doesn't mean that he is going to stop us from doing it. That is what free-will is...free agency. We make our own choices and pay the consequences for those choices whether we pay while we are here on earth or in the next life.
2006-11-30 16:27:44 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Are you coming from the position that it is God's purpose to create "good" ppl that go to heaven and that if he doesn't achieve this then it is some problem with god's intellect? Try this on for size. God is. God is all knowing. God is you. God is air. God is everything. God is nothing. God is nowhere and everywhere at the same time. God doesn't think, people just think god thinks. Ppl try and make god out to be a person, god isn't likely so limited as we are, but I'm at least pretty sure that god isn't a people factory whose job is to make good heaven bound people.
Fun question though...I'm sure my answer is wrong.
2006-11-30 16:01:32 · answer #6 · answered by BOISE_DD 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is a universal dichotomy in life - good and bad, up and down, light and dark, and that goes on indefinitely. It helps show the trueness of the good when there is great evil to contrast it with, and vice versa. When all is good, then it's hard to say what is good. Also it can become extremely monotonous and boring to live in a world with no confilct.
Sometimes good people really shine when helping others through tough times, and without those tough times, that opportunity to help and connect is removed.
2006-11-30 16:00:13 · answer #7 · answered by jeremy82many 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If anyone knew the answer to this ? they would be God but here's my intrepretation of that I don't believe God created anyone bad he created us all with free will. Some people are bad and that is their choice. Of course he is all knowing, I also think God is prefectly pure and good and he created us with this image in mind. One thing is for sure though we will all know the answer to this question someday. I think for this lifetime I will choose good.
2006-11-30 16:05:19 · answer #8 · answered by ellorra25 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God knew that one day, the exact date and time, when sin would emerge. All his intelligent creatures have choice and he knew that one day one would choose not to follow Him. He is a creative God I believe and what then should he not create because they might rebel? We are free to rebel but judgment also have to issued and the whole universe have to see the real effect of sin and disobedience. God is not setting to rules to restrict us but because he loves and cares for us. Do you allow your kid to play on the balcony with proper rails, or you say railings would restrict them?
Because of sin, we are witnesses of the reality of sin and what it does. That is why God had to die to redeem us and he will come again and save us and rid the universe of sin, sinners and the devil Satan forever.
Before there was sin, no one knew really what it was it was just a bad thing. But sooner or later it would arise and Lucifer initiated it and therefore in God's infinite wisdom sin is allowed to be played out so that the character of God will be seen and that all the warning before was warranted.
Sin will never again rare its ugly head because God will not allow it again and we wont either because we see what it causes.
Even God had to pay for sin by the death of His only son, which was no ordinary death - no man or woman on earth every had that death - he died for the world everybody who died already died for themself.
2006-11-30 16:09:13 · answer #9 · answered by Damian 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Describing God as all knowing was the invention of Religious Empires in order to control their flocks (members) .
If I tell you that God is all knowing, and that God can read your every thought, and that I am God's representitive, then you will be afraid to not do what I tell you to do. You will not be able to hide from God, and then God will punish you for not doing what I tell you to do. ....... Well, I am sure you get the point.
Now, that said, Actually since God is a loving scientist from an advanced Planet. His computers do have the ability to receive messages (prayers) from you.
And, compared to us, God is pretty knowledgeable.
Rather than boring you, if you are really interested in the details, you could read my book "God's Ancestors; The Story" available at Amazon.com and Lulu.com... or you could email me for a free copy.
PS: Have you noticed how confused people seem, when they answer your question, when they say that God knows what you are going to do, but you have a choice of what to do, but God wants you to do certain things, but you are predestined to do certain things, however, you have the free will not to do certain things, but God knows what you are going to do because he has already programmed what you are going to do, but then they say you have free will and can choose whatever you want to do, but but but but.
2006-11-30 16:03:31 · answer #10 · answered by MrsOcultyThomas 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋