These contradict each other, if freewill means that God doesn't know what people will do, that can only mean that God is not in fact "all knowing".
2006-11-30 08:06:25 · 18 answers · asked by Nick F 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
An omniscient god cannot exist in a world where humans have free will, particularly if that god can predict the future--that would mean he/she/it knew the actions of humanity in advance and their repercussions. Either we don't have free will or there is no all-knowing god. And if a god is not all-knowing, is it god?
2006-11-30 08:10:01 · answer #1 · answered by N 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Free will and all-knowing are not contradictions. You have free-will to chose path A, B, C or whatever, and although God knows which path you might chose, you still make the choice. What is amazing is that although God knows we might chose a bad path, he lets us do something bad because somewhere along that path there will be some good that is capable of occurring. Then of course he can govern through His Providence, where he will open up some greater path that you couldn't reach before by ordinary circumstances.
2006-11-30 08:23:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
What you must remember is that God is outside of time. We humans see events as past, present and future. God sees all events as now. He can just as easily see the beginning of creation as He can the day of your death. He is omniscient, but does not control your thoughts and actions. He already knows every action you will take and the consequences. You have freewill as far as your actions are concerned, but God has already seen your life, from beginning to end.
Concerning salvation, freewill is not part of the equation. We do not "choose" God, He chooses us, by His grace and divine love. I had nothing to do with my salvation, and left to my own flesh or "free will" I never would have chosen God. Ephesians chapt.1 and 2 are very clear about this.
2006-11-30 08:23:53 · answer #3 · answered by BrotherMichael 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God doesn't experience time the same way we do. He wasn't born in X million years BC and see into the future. Think of how you experience time relative to characters in a book you might pick up. In an evening of reading, the characters in the book may experienced days, months, or years of time passing. Or, if you set the book down for a few days, they will 'experience' nothing at all. If you concieve of God as existing outside our timeline, there's no real contradiction. If you know how your favorite novel ends, does that mean that you determined the ending?
2006-11-30 08:16:13 · answer #4 · answered by snak 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God gave humanity freewill so that they would love Him.
Being God, He could command it of us, but that would not truly be love. Love must be given, or it would simply be fear and obedience.
It does not contradict His "all knowing" because He knew from the time before the world ever was who would love Him.
Alpha and Omega, from the beginning to the end.
He knows where our freewill would lead us.
2006-11-30 08:17:38 · answer #5 · answered by Bill Mac 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You're right; this is an insurmountable problem in traditional theism (Molinism gave it a good try, though).
Here's the solution: omniscience must be reconstrued as the knowledge of all actualities as actualities, and all possibilities as possibilities. In other words, God knows everything that is, and everything that could be, but what specific contingent things will occur, God does not know, because those things do not exist to be known. Make sense? That's the answer of process theism.
2006-11-30 08:16:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That IS a conundrum, isn't it? Because... if God knows everything, EVERYTHING... then God knows what you will do every second of your life. You may think you're making choices... you may agonize and take days, weeks, months to "decide" what to do... but in the end, God knew you would do it and you were powerless to do anything that would've contradicted the perfect knowledge of God.
It's not that God "forces" you to do things so much as God created you to inevitably follow along with what he knows will happen without the ability to deviate from what he knows will come to be.
So... you see....
You can only do what God knows you'll do. NOTHING else.
2006-11-30 08:08:01 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
No contradiction. As another stated, just because God knows what we are going to do/choose it doesn't mean he is making us choose it. Just like if my wife put a piece of pizza and some brussel sprouts in front of me, she knows I will take the pizza, but I still have the choice. God knows each of us so well that he essentially knows how we will choose, whether it is against his teachings or not. He provides ways whereby we can know the right way to choose, but it is still our choice.
2006-11-30 08:37:59 · answer #8 · answered by straightup 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I believe in free will. I exercise it all the time. I don't see how God can be all knowing because of timing and coincidence.
I do think that God knows why I decided to come here for this life. How I handle my life is up to me entirely.
2006-11-30 08:12:55 · answer #9 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Free will does not mean God knows what you are going to do. Free will is simply God giving you the freedom to make your own decisions and choose your own destiny.
2006-11-30 08:15:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋