The idea of God as all knowing is the idea that God is perfect and therefore cannot be wrong or make a mistake, right.. This belief system also asserts that humans have free-will. Is it me or do these two ideas seem to be contradict one another?
2007-03-09 09:16:58 · 12 answers · asked by confused 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I don't think free will is a mistake.I like it.i may make mistakes,but i'm not God,so I don't see any contradiction.
2007-03-09 09:28:22 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, I would not assume that God is perfect and cannot make mistakes. According to the book of Genesis, there was a creation prior to this one andit was not good. Then, of course, this one has not been so great either or Noah would not have had a ship loaded with only members of his family and a bunch of animals. God is, at best, very confusing. You are to love him and fear him. Why would a God that loves you want you to fear him? How could a perfect god make a mistake that would get the wrong child the birthright in the Jacob/Esau story. Why would a perfect god punish a man who sacrificed his farm produce when he was not like his brother who raised sheep.
As far as free will is concerned, there is a great problem after you have read St. Augustine and Calvin - the two who explained the concept of Predestination. It seems that at conception that God knows who is damned to hell and who will be saved, so why not do what you want to, you can't change that destiny.
The whole Bible is nothing but contradictions. There are two different creation stories and they are right next to each other. There are two Noah stories and if they are not right next to each other, they are close. There are two sets of very different ten commandments within 12 chapters of Exodus.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, more of contradictions. You can use verses from the Bible to argue on either side of an issue, even a religious issue.
2007-03-09 19:33:53 · answer #2 · answered by Polyhistor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They do contradict each other.
God cannot know what it is like to answer this question at this exact time AND know what it is like to not answer this question at this exact time...unless he has an impossibly large picture of the world stretched out before him, starting with the beginning of time and going to the end of time. Then he could see what was going on at any particular time and get his information. Of course, this requires everything to be pre-determined. Free will would be eliminated.
If humans had free will, then God could not know what a person would do next. If God decides what the next action will be, there is no free will.
God cannot know everything, however. God cannot know what a square circle looks like, for such a figure cannot exist, by definition. God cannot know what it is to watch over a species with free will AND know, at the same time, what those specimens will do next. If free will means limited only by physical restraints, then God knows a lot of things the specimens won't do (humans won't flap their arms and fly to the moon), but he can't know what they will do for sure.
2007-03-10 01:10:08 · answer #3 · answered by fuzzinutzz 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is perfect.
Humans are not.
It's the free will thing that allows us to make mistakes.
He'd be a pretty sorry God if He forced Himself upon us.
Contradiction comes in when we know what Love would do next and do something different.
Be blessed. Love you.
2007-03-09 17:32:45 · answer #4 · answered by SisterHazel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will is something that God has given us, but you need to realize that it has its limitations.
Christianity teaches that our free will is so powerful that it can supersede the will of God. This is simple nonsense. God loves us too much to ever allow this to happen.
Our free will is constrained by the choices God makes available to us. That is all of the possible choices that are available to us, lead eventually to the exact same outcome. Some take us in more circuitous pathways but all of the possible choices eventually lead us back home to God.
So the answer is actually yes and no. We do have free will but it is constrained by the choices God allows for us to pick from. God simply loves us too much to allow us any choices that would allow us to become permanently lost to Him.
Many religions teach that this is not the case, that we can become forever lost due to our choices. This is a simple lack of faith in Gods love for us. A simple misunderstanding No more no less.
Love and blessings
Don
2007-03-09 21:16:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are profound paradoxes and even contradictions in lots of beliefs about God: believing God is good and omnipotent doesn't fit logically with the existence of evil. Type "Problem of Evil" into a search engine, and enjoy. You'll see many references to Mackie's "Evil and Omnipotence," an article I've used in classes myself.
2007-03-09 18:48:12 · answer #6 · answered by Philo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your thinking is fine because you are assessing both yourself and God at the same time. Your free will is related to God's ability to judge you as a thinking, spiritual individual. The book "Another Thought" by OC Tross explains this thought in detail.
2007-03-09 18:27:03 · answer #7 · answered by ken123 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not seeing how your getting from all knowing to perfect,,,,, ?? nor from God and free will? do you mean God must not be perfect if people have free will?
2007-03-09 18:21:24 · answer #8 · answered by dlin333 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What is contradictory is to simultaneously have an i.q. over 120, and yet concern yourself with the drivel that = "popular religion" :)))))
2007-03-09 17:21:35 · answer #9 · answered by drakke1 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no they dont cuz we arent God....humans are small
2007-03-09 17:34:26 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋