If God is all-knowing, why doesn't he know in advance that prayer will change his mind from Plan A to Plan B?

Question

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Wouldn't he know in advance that he was not going to follow his first idea?

What will stop him from changing his mind again later? Isn't a God who is so malleable actually just being fickle?

What if God help you get a job, but it meant another member of your faith had to wait longer, even though both of you were praying for the job? So your prayer was answered: Yippee! But what if instead God listened to the first guy's prayers and allowed him to get the job while you cooled your heels for another several months. Aren't most prayers based on a zero-sum game, where if you get what you wanted, someone else is getting the shaft?

Thanks for considering this.

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Barry: I assume the believers are on speaking terms with their god. The problem is, since I don't believe God exists, then to my mind, there's nobody there when they pray. I'm just curious how the believers would answer this seeming paradox of faith.

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Katie: I appreciate your effort, but your final statement kind of sums it up. I don't understand what you're trying to say or how it relates to my question.

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Answer 1

God is all-knowing, but people still have free will. It doesn't seem to make sense but here's how I think of it. Let's say we have three options to choose from and God is all-knowing so he knows what will happen if we choose option 1, 2, or 3. Now to answer the question about prayers, ultimately people choose what happens to them, God may help out a little though. It's not really that he's changing his mind, cause he's not deciding for us. When we pray, he may listen and influence choices that we as well as other people are going to make to determine whether or not we get what we want, God has a plan for all of us, but we choose whether or not to follow that plan. So, God may choose to influence someone else's choices but really it could go either way, so "fate" or God's plan is altered a little bit. But it's okay, because he still knows what is going to happen now. It's kind of like the theory that if you kill a butterfly it's going to affect what happens years from now. And think about it, sometimes your prayers are answered and sometimes they are not. It really depends on how much you want it and how God wants things to work out.

I'm not sure if that really made any sense at all actually, sorry.

Answer 2

More dribble from the believers ... defense, denial, and double talk... blah blah blah.

I'd award Katie with best answer. She at least arrived at the conclusion that she didn't know how to justify an unjustifiable position. I think she saw that no matter how slim she sliced off a bit of god's will to accommodate answering a prayer, it logically followed that even the most meager an amount yielded put god in the position of no longer being the man with the plan.

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Answer 3

Chill out you might get stomach trouble

Answer 4

God wants us to come to Him with our worries, and trust Him. Life and its problems causes us to try to fix them our selves or go to Him. The chose is ours!

Answer 5

u r not God , so dont try to think as him or try to be wise as him ,and i dont mean that u cant think well , but our minds are limited , we will never have God's wisdom

Answer 6

Maybe god just likes it when you beg.
On your knees, sinner!!!
Thats it, now roll over,
sit up,
thats a good doggie!!!
Heres your treat!

Answer 7

shhhh! you're hurting their brains with your unassailable logic!

Answer 8

He knows.

Answer 9

Why not ask him?