everything that will happen to us?? (Question ends here)
2007-10-15 18:06:40 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
We live in time, which has a definite beginning and a definite end. In other words, we live on a line. God is on the eternal plane, totally outside of time, and thus can see everything that happens from one end of the line to the other. It's not that God "makes" us make certain decisions with our free will; rather, He knows what decisions we will make before we make them. He does not "determine" what we will do, He knows what we will do -- two very different things.
This is really a better discussion question, worthy of better answers than you will more than likely get from a few people.
Have a great night!
2007-10-15 18:18:25 · answer #1 · answered by herfinator 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We cannot have all 3: An all powerful God, an All loving God, and free will. According to most religious texts, God is not all loving, though we are taught that God is love (tough love I suppose is implied). God cannot be all powerful if we have free will. Otherwise, he could and should intervene, again, if he were all loving. Many christian scholars see God as working with us through history, but outside of history and, thus, unable to intervene....thus, not being all powerful. My question is, if God isn't all loving and all powerful, then why would I worship/follow him? If God is these things, then I have no free will and it isn't my choice in the end what I do. I don't like either answer for many reasons. I can't believe that there would be a creator, redeemer, prince of peace, etc. that would allow suffering people to continue to suffer, not matter the reason. If that's his plan, I want no part of it.
2007-10-15 18:17:04 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Some physicists like to postulate that there are an infinite number of dimensions where time has taken a slightly different path... a crossroad for every decision and every possibility... whereby within the multiverse, all possible time lines occur.
Who is to say that each time line has a different off-shoot of God? Why cant the same consciousness that is God exist overseeing the multiverse as a whole?
If this is true, God knows all and free will is possible, simultaneously.
That is to say, God knows the future for every possible choice we can possibly make.
This might be beyond our ability to conceive... but if God exists as the creator of the universe, he obviously exists outside of it and oversees it. It follows, then, that if the universe operates as I have illustrated within the laws of physics (by Gods design), then Gods omnipotence does not contradict free-will.
In fact, one could go so far as to argue that without God free will is not possible. If the universe operates as per the theory I showed, within the laws of physics, and without God, then all "choices" are going to happen anyway. Each offshoot of the time-line occurs for every possibility - each offshoot and each possibility will happen within a certain time line - and therefore choice is irrelevant without a God, and merely an illusion.
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We can then simplify the problem. The universe need not operate as complexly as illustrated, the physics might be wrong. Assume a single branch of the time-line. Simply understand the point Im trying to make here.
A God can easily know the outcomes of every possible choice we can possibly make, thereby making him omnipotent... but still reserve to us the right to make the final decision. Compare this to a pair of chess masters competing each other... making their strategic decisions in the course of play... while a God, the observer, knows the rules and strategies so well that every possibly decision is pre-understood and pre-planned for.
A God can then plan specific "natural" consequences to our decisions in order to ensure certain events and a certain destiny, but giving us a great deal of leeway in our lives to play out as we will.
What theists call a "divine plan" and "free will", many non-theists and atheists call "karma" and "destiny."
2007-10-15 19:35:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you had an ant farm or some other little world filled with relatively insignificant creatures, it would be easier to understand. They can do anything they want in their limited plane of existence, but in the end, they WILL die and be outlived by you. Also, you have complete control over what they eat or how you can kill them, etc... but they still act independently. God can forsee what is going to happen to us and do whatever he wants about it, but we have the free will to believe in him or not. He can and does do things that destroy our expectations sometimes, making it seem as though we have no free will, but it is our choice accept to be controlled by God or to be at odds with him. A bunch of mindless robots that did everything you said would get boring after a few days.
2007-10-15 18:20:22 · answer #4 · answered by agarwaen_neithan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't believe in free will, simply because it doesn't make sense with logic (as you said), and there is no way to prove it exists. The only way we can prove it is if you can go back in time and change what we did. Seeing that is impossible, I'd say the free will is more of a "glass ceiling" than a real idea.
2007-10-15 18:23:09 · answer #5 · answered by carabatzis_2000 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will, no one truly has free will.
Free will is a nice fantasy though!
Have a family? They need to eat, what kind of free will does one have who has to work a job for money?
Buy that house, free will, what free will when you have to pay that mortgage.
Have a car, where is free will when you have to pay insurance, gas, maintenance and if you have a car payment, where then is your free will.....
Free will is a good fantasy, but life is not made up of free will. God must of known this and put "free will" into our vocabulary. ....
2007-10-15 18:14:48 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God(Jesus) has chosen not to know how we use our freewill while we are alive. If we sin against God and repent he is happy.He wants all of us to get to heaven, that is why he is being very patient with us.If Jesus knew which one of us was going to heaven and hell he would not be waiting and hoping that we would choose him instead of Satan. It is part of the Father's loving plan.Jesus is hoping all of us will get to Heaven,but he knows a lot of us will not.Only when he comes again to judge us,will he know who will join him, and who won't. As i said, Jesus has made this decision for himself not to know how we use our freewill ,and being God he can do what he likes. That is why we can be forgiven over and over and over again.
2007-10-15 23:32:42 · answer #7 · answered by ROBERT P 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
go with the flow and live ur life the way u want it ull get judge when u die not right now
2007-10-15 18:08:46 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
that guy cannot see me and boss me around because I have conjured up a magical spell that provides a force field, which makes me invisible & immune to the mind control.yay!:)
2007-10-15 18:39:18 · answer #9 · answered by polly-pocket 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God knows what you will choose and do.
2007-10-15 18:09:07 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋