Does God's omniscience negate man's free will?

Question

Are perfect-foreknowledge and the ability to freely choose mutually exclusive?

If god knew I was going to post this question, did I ever have the option to do otherwise? If god knew I was going to post this question, and then I did otherwise, wouldn't god be proven wrong and thus fail to be omniscient? If I can't prove god wrong, how can I choose to do anything other than what god already knows? If I can't choose to do anything other than what is already affirmed by god's perfect-foreknowledge, how can I have a choice in any matter?

Answer 1

Alright, you know my stance on this...(this is Josh, by the way.)
Basically, if god (the Christian god, I will use) were omniscient, he would be what modern theologians have coined as 'inherently omniscient,' or simply being able to know anything that one chooses to know and _can_ be known. This is not 'total omniscience,' where one knows all. The distinction lies in the scope of knowledge; the former god would know the outcome of all possible choices in a situation, but not literally what we choose to do, whereas the latter god would know all, including what actions we would make, which would technically deny our free will.

The original idea of an omniscient god was that he was totally omniscient, he knows all there could possibly be to know, including what we choose to do at any given moment. However, I think due to the idea of free will coming about, our silly little religious pals have had to rethink their view on god and his scope of knowledge. While I manifestly am an unbeliever of any god, I do think that an inherently omniscient god would make logical sense (even though the ideas of god and omniscience are ostensibly illogical eo ipso.)

Eww, I think I just defended religion.

Answer 2

Funny... I was thinking about a similar question but with regards to human precognition today. I'd say that it's one way of looking at things to decide that God has a plan and that it will be carried out to the letter no matter what happens. I don't think you can use omniscience or precognition to disprove free will though. When you're dealing with the spiritual stuff, you have to realize that you can't draw conclusions based on the limitations we have in this world, like time. God's not limited by time, or any other of the dimensions we see in this world (plus, probably, a few we haven't been perspicacious enough to notice yet). So you could say that, the way God sees things is not foreknowledge at all. Just divine sight.
So does the fact that he can see it all mean that it was all destined to begin with?


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Naaaaaaah....

Answer 3

God's omniscience does not negate man's free will -- it only damages it to where we cannot look to God for salvation. That allows us to make any other decision that we like, but none of those choices merit heaven since we stand guilty before the Lord and fully deserving of his wrath. However, if you believe that we do have the ability to choose our salvation for ourselves, this does in fact make God weak, and pleading, and hoping that we will choose him, sadly (?) placing us in hell for not choosing him before the dividing line of death. And this yields even more questions about whether God is loving or merely a telemarketer. Disasters in our lives are either a test or a mystery, and to make the theology sound requires a redefinition of predestination to choosing all of humanity rather than his own as he sees fit.

So, I wouldn't say that foreknowledge and ability to choose are not mutually exclusive, but they are only compatible if man is damaged and God is not.

Answer 4

No, it would only destroy our free will, or "free agency", if *we* had a perfect foreknowledge. This is the paradox of Oedipus; the fact that he learned what his future was, caused it to come to pass. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_the_King
Though, personally, I have some problems with that kind of deterministic thinking.

The fact that God is perfect and omnipotent, is one of the reasons our relationship with him has to be partly based on faith and trust. If we knew what his true nature was, and truly knew what his intentions for us were, we could never be persuaded by Satan to choose evil. Thus our free will would dissapear.

~Donkey Hotei

Answer 5

technology hasn't have been given a clue whilst people first arrived in the international or how we got here to be right here. they might desire to guess from what they locate and that they have got not discovered the skeletons of Adam or Eve yet. They weren't precisely unicorns or different mythological creatures.

Answer 6

I think that God can see all outcomes of a possible situation. And by all outcomes, I mean EVERYTHING from the point that decision is made. Ultimately, it is up to us what decisions that we make. God leads us into circumstances that can change our life for better or for worse, but we are the one that makes the choice.

I don't believe that our lives are pre-destined. I do believe that God has a plan for each one of us when he creates us, but we have the opportunity to seek out that plan or to live for ourselves.

Answer 7

No. God knew millions of years back that you will ask that question today. But he does not force you to ask the question.His knowledge of the future does not force a thing. Just God knows what will we do in the future.

Answer 8

No. (God always give us a choice to love and accept Him) He won't touch that. One has to understand Karma and Reincarnation to understand Gods unlimited mercy. We have free will but we also have our karma from our past lives. IT is like a prisoner he has free will in his prison cell but only to the degree of his situation and sentence. Good and bad Karma are coming like waves in the ocean. It is how we react to them that create our next liefs karma. That is why one child is born sick and poor and another wealthy and healthy. It is all past life karma. Christ also taught Karma Reincarnation- For the original New Testament google gospelofthenazirenes.c For Vedic Teachings go to harekrishnatemple.c. Read Bhagavad Gita as it is By Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada

Answer 9

No. Just because GOD knows the end from the beginning including what you will do in every situation does not take away your free will....

Answer 10

No because Omnipotence is just a word with no basics in fact. Omnipotence does not negate anything. I doesn't even exist except as a fantasy.