Who will perform a though experiment about god's omniscience and free will?

Question

Consider this. If you have 2 objects in front of you and are about to pick one up. Does god know which one you will pick up? (If no he isn't omniscient. If yes continue) Now is it possible to pick up the other object (not the one god knows you will pick up the other one) and so surprise god and make him wrong? If yes he isn't omniscient If no we don't have free will and you need to start looking for another excuse as to why there is pain and suffering in a world supposedly created by a perfect benevolent being.

Say no to jesus

Answer 1

You seem a little frustrated and angry.

We obviously have free will.

Everyone does. That is ours to have and do with it as we please.

As to questioning God's omniscience....

God knows everything about you. Your thoughts, feelings, emotions ect.. and every decision you will ever make in your life. Including whether you accept His Son or not and change your name to "say yes to Jesus".

Seek the truth and don't be a scoffer.

What's the gain in it?

Answer 2

Your arguement is flawed.

Just because someone may know the future, or know someone so well, they know what their counterpart will choose, does not mean they have willed the person to do it.

I know my child will choose to watch Aladdin over Cinderella anyday but it is not because I made her do it. I know my wife would choose Diet Coke over pickle juice, etc.

God can know what is going to happen. God can also watch it, and have planned from the beginning for His will to be in harmony with your choices, without making you choose.

Your question should be "How can a God who loves us not interfere when we make dumb decisions?" If He did, and there was no pain, terrorism, etc. then that would be a sign that He has revoked our free will. The problems in this world are a direct result of men and women not making Godly deicisions.

All the wickedness done in Gods name, was done by misdirected souls, who have not the slightest idea of what God wants. I am sorry so many people have had to interface with such bad examples.

If all self-professing Christians truly lived by the standards instituted by Jesus, this section of Yahoo answers would not have so much hate on it. In part because the Christians would be kind and loving, yet certain in there answers. While non-believers would not have had a bad sampling in their pasts and feel the need to bash, and make hateful comments. We would be able to converse like civilized people regarding our ideals and beliefs.

Answer 3

Well since god knows that one of the objects is a joint and the other a beer, he would rather you pick up both.

Hey if I am going to have an imaginary friend that is omniscient, this god character will approve of all my decisions!

Answer 4

An alternative view is that God knows every potential outcome of any given action but avoids interfering in order not to compromise human free will. I don't believe in God but I don't see a conflict between his omniscience and free will if he did exist.

Answer 5

God knows which object he wants you to pick up, but will let you chose the wrong one, because he has given you choice, and will eventually show you were you went wrong. Hind sight is 20-20.
This is not an experiment, but a though exercise of the mind.

Answer 6

this might properly be one among those paradoxes which you get once you assign your deity countless attributes. specific. the actuality that God is conscious what you will do does not propose which you're actually not picking to do it. For the cornflakes occasion above, you have loose will to devour cornflakes or have a bagel. yet God is conscious what you will chosen to do. it is great till you get into the all-powerful and creation areas of the parable. If God is all-powerful an created the universe then we not have loose will. If God is all-powerful then he might desire to create the universe in any subtly different sort that he needed to. and because he's omniscient he has to renowned each and every thing which will ensue in a skill universe earlier he creates it. So, each and every thing that occurs might desire to be because of the fact God needs it to ensue, else he might have used his omnipotence to create the universe extremely in any different case. So each and every word I sort right here is explicitly because of the fact God needs me to sort those words. If He knew earlier the universe replace into created precisely what i might sort and went forward an created this universe besides. So not something has loose will as God planned each and every thing that would desire to ensue via the universe for each femtosecond of existence. the different ingredient of it is that each and each toddler that dies does so because of the fact God needed it. An all-powerful and omniscient deity might desire to create a universe the place no harmless being suffered and nonetheless gain any objective that they needed. suffering happens because of the fact this God needs human beings to go through and for no different reason.

Answer 7

You make a valid point, however, only the existence of a deity could produce free will. If there is no supernatural, then our brains are nothing more than a computational system.

If I input the following program:

INPUT "Give me a number: ", X
IF X = 2
THEN PRINT "IT IS 2!"
ELSE PRINT "IT IS NOT 2!"

Then run the program, and give it '3' as an input... was it free will that it says 'it is not 2!"? If it is then humans have free will, if it is not, then humans do not have free will.


Why do people keep entangling the question of God's omniscience with free will? Face it, there's no such thing as free will.

Answer 8

If he exists and is omniscient (both false but I'll play along), then:

Yes, he would know which one you would pick. No, it is not possible to pick up the other one - he knows which one you will pick. No, we don't have free will.

[EDIT: Knowing the outcome DOES negate free will. If god knows that you will select b instead of a, then you CANNOT select a. This is not free will.]

Answer 9

(1) You are right. As God's will and true plan and purpose, by definition, encompass all truth that will ever be, there is no free will outside those bounds. We cannot "will" ourselves to turn into butterflies or elephants or anything else outside the laws of nature. That is not God's will. However, within this construct, we humans have "free will" to consciously "choose" actions that are consistent with God's will. Like forgiveness, some things cannot occur, are not designed to happen, UNTIL we consciously will them. That is part of God's plan, for us to learn by our own logic and reason, so that by "free will" we "choose" to do what is his perfect will for us. We need only to learn that what we are designed to do makes us happiest anyway, by design, so that we trust in his purpose and freely "choose" to follow that will. We learn to trust that God's will, by definition, will bring maximum happiness to all.

(2) Jesus means "justice" but restorative justice not retributive. You are right that the suffering and pain is NOT part of God's ideal will for our lives. The pain and suffering is there to help us learn to seek what is good and satisfying which brings joy and peace to all, and to AVOID that which causes negative consequences of pain and suffering. Blame and resentment instead of reconciliation and forgiveness; addiction instead of recovery; corruption instead of correction; all these things we must overcome will free us from pain and suffering. If we did not have the bad consequences as well as the good, we would not learn the difference between right and wrong. So both exist in order to guide us by free will and reason to seek liberating truth.

I agree to say no to false teachings of Jesus, which have caused endless conflict suffering and judgment, divided people against one another, and prevented us from realizing universal truth. The true meaning and message of Jesus and Christianity is to heal through forgiveness, reconciliation and correction so that all people overcome the pains of the past and are united in heart and mind to bring peace and spiritual freedom to all the world.

Answer 10

You forgot an option, God's option. Can He, being omnipotant, choose NOT to know how you will pick? I think too many people exclude this option, thus causing confusion like this.

I believe God knows what choices are in front of me, and the results of the choice I make but chooses NOT to know how I will choose. This is supported scripturally in all the verses that say "IF you will do this, THEN I will do this" and not "WHEN you do this, I will do this"