He can see all of the past and the future. He can see a future time when you perform action A. Therefore, you cannot choose not to perform action A. It is already done from a non-temporal view.
2007-04-16 03:49:39 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God exists outside the notion of time and the universe is contingent on God's expression for its existence. God is timeless, in that he sees the passage of temporal time as you or I see a range of mountains far in the distance. At this distance the range of mountains seems to be one continuous line, yet as we get closer we see then mountains separated by miles and miles. God sees everything in the "eternal now". Hence, time does not "pass" for God.
So God knows all that you will do. But that does not mean you don't have Free Will. If I stand atop a building and watch two cars coming around opposite corners and know that they will hit one another; the fact that they do indeed crash, does not mean that I caused the accident or that the drivers did not act according to their own wills.
Like the observer of the auto crash above, God knows what choices you will ultimately make in a given circumstance. Moreover, God may have acted to bring about these choices just a parent may do by providing a loving environment, shelter, education, counsel, and other of life's opportunities. Just because our parents laid out the tools for us, we are free to choose the paths we will take using these tools. God's behavior here is a form of determinism but not predestination since the predestination term implies that God has actually determined (rather than seen) in advance the destiny of creatures.
If God were to 'get involved' and start influencing human actions for the better, then human actions wouldn't be free any longer. Human freedom means that God cannot guarantee human perfection.
This requires that free will be a good in itself, greater than the evil it costs to allow such freedom. Why should it be better for God to respect human freedom? What's so great about free will? The response is that free will is what makes us valuable moral agents, and that, if God were to deny us our freedom, human society would be in a deep sense, like an assemblage of robots: not only incapable of evil, but incapable of moral choice in general. Though value would exist in such a world, the free moral agency possessed by God and actual humans is argued to be far greater. All the cruelty that we humans freely perform is indeed regrettable, but it is the price of freedom.
2007-04-16 04:14:49 · answer #1 · answered by Ask Mr. Religion 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free Will is a joke. Everything has a cause and effect. Now, I'm not beyond saying the "first cause" was not God, but since we cannot know, empirically, what came before this existance, and God won't give interviews, we cannot prove or disprove this.
If your synapse fires a certan way, you'll perform action A. If it fires the other way, you'll perform action B. If it fails to fire, you'll perform neither.
God may know all, including what will cause what effect, but Man cannot know this. We have the illusion of free will, because we don't know stuff.
Oh, and because you don't really have free will does not absolve anyone from any responsibility. Punishment for crimes is the effect of being convicted of that crime. I don't even think of it as punishment. It's input. Get convicted of a crime, go to jail, next time you'll have that data to consider that if I do A, B will result.
If you commit a capital offense, then the society needs to be rid of you, and the execution is preventing a repeat of the offense.
2007-04-16 04:07:07 · answer #2 · answered by tkdeity 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, as I always say everyone has "free-will" as long as they do what they are told. But your question is more about "fate" than free will. You and I have some free will, to a point, but still your fate will come no matter what your choices are, now.
So all things that are going to happen, will happen, simple but true. If it is my fate to fall down the stairs, that will happen, why? Because I do not know it is coming. And the only way to get downstairs is to go down the stairs. I can not choose, not to.
So a person gets in their car, goes three blocks and gets T-boned at an intersection. Did that person want that to happen? No. But could they have done anything about it? No.
The fate was for those two cars to be in that place, at that time. Free will or the choices we make have nothing to do with what happens to us. Like a carpenter swinging a hammer, that he swung thousands of times and knew better then to swing that hammer in such a way as to hit his thumb. And still it happened.
Free will is always and totally governed by rules, and laws.
Free will is governed by fear and by love.
Free will is governed by those around us and how we interact.
Free will is a very limited, no question there.
2007-04-16 04:12:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God created all of the universe, stars, moon, sun, the earth and man. How can he not know everything about everybody? He knows what you are going to do before you do it. But, he doesn't control what you do. You have the ultimate choice of what you do. But because God knows you better than you know yourself, he knows what your choice is going to be. Nothing is done until you do it, but understand he knows what you are going to do before you make the decision to do. Therefore, we are not pupets on a string. He allows us individual choice. But prepare for consequences for anything against God. If you have eternal life with him, it will because you love Him, not because he controlled you to do what he wants.
2007-04-16 04:13:27 · answer #4 · answered by Diane H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No He give us the will to do 1 of 2 thing:
Pick the road that leads to Heaven
or
Pick the road to hell.
Depending on the one you choose God already know where it's taking you,because God created it,and He give us the freedom of choice,that's your own choice and mine.
2007-04-16 04:12:36 · answer #5 · answered by Daisy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
understanding some thing will ensue isn't the comparable as ordaining that that's going to ensue. Neither does it in any way impact the freewill of the 0.33 occasion - how ought to it? i will watch my youthful daughter enter the kitchen - and know that her hand is going to bypass interior the cookie jar. i've got considered her do it formerly - i've got advised her to no longer, even however that's often the comparable. Her hand is going interior the jar. Now, i've got advised her to no longer - i've got warned her of the outcomes, even however that's HER option to disobey me. ask your self - in what way am I denying her unfastened will, or in charge for her determination- whether i know damm nicely what she will do?
2016-12-10 03:23:17 · answer #6 · answered by messenger 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gods knowledge is not the force that causes is to act. We have free will but he knows what we will do before we do it. I know it is very confusing but think of God's knowledge of things to come as a mirrior or a reflection and not the causing factor of the things to come.
I hope I haven't confused you, I know it's hard to comprehend.
2007-04-16 03:56:31 · answer #7 · answered by rossem 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Knowing what you will do and forcing you to do it are two separate issues.
For instance, God may warn you not to get into the car today because you will be in a serious accident. Yet, you ignore Him and do so anyway and you are in an accident.
Were you forced to get into the car? No. You chose.
2007-04-16 03:53:38 · answer #8 · answered by Christmas Light Guy 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Not necessarily. Some "milestones" in our lives are predetermined but we are still subject to the free will of others as well as our own.
2007-04-16 03:56:48 · answer #9 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You're free to do what you want, He just already knows what it will be, even if you change your mind at the last second.
He gave us free will so we could have a choice whether to love and obey Him, or not. He doesn't want robots.
2007-04-16 03:59:48 · answer #10 · answered by buggedsenseless 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋