Does God know his own future decisions?

Question

If God is all-knowing he actually shouldn't have any decisions to make at all. Nor can he choose anything over something else. For that would mean that he is neither omniscient nor omnipotent. In fact, he can't even think if this is the case. Since he can't DO anything,might he as well not exist?

Answer 1

yes....you are heading in the right direction. Now take the MIGHT out and replace it with DOES NOT.

Answer 2

Relativity!

I love your question!

I think the answer is yes!

What a great God aint he just awesome knowing you'd ask this how great is that?

So, where do we go now, God only knows?

Yea, you don't know so you asked, fair question, reasoning, reasonable, thank you next, oh you want an answer, um, the question was so good stating it another way was a complete waste of time, valid, but ingeniously I liked the way you did the question better than my answer, why ever did you ask? God only knew? LMAO I failed comprehension, heck, I am blond, how should I know the answer if you cant figure it out, oh, you want the usual requisite delluge of biblical quotes following my answer or before it? Oh well here goes but dont say I didnt warn you!

What if there were none! Ah, Gods testing me? Wow, um, no surely not, you are, but no one else answered your question? Nah surely not?

You know denial, resistance, are both futile, give in just do it, believe ya gonna love it, its great, fantastic and fun, if it aint joyful just join another church or read another part of the bible, its got everything, only bigger than Ben Hur, whatever that is, um an epic about the bible, long winded too.

Wait till it comes out on video and you waste your whole life, just do it! Do what? have faith that some of the dudes here are more serious than me, here are the juicy bits the bible has that make just as much sense as your question.

Jesus, God, married a prosititute, how awesome is that? He loves great sex!!!! Not some pious person saying oh, sex? No we are religious here, we dont have sex? What the? Most of extremist fundamentalists in denial end up with out the gratitude necessary to resist temptation or put temptation wrongly before themselves, with in humans we have denial and acceptance, best not to challenge God, 1 Corinthians whole chapter about tall poppy syndrome, Galations 5 about desirable attributes worth focussing upon, James 5 about healing, matthew 6 sermon on the mount, inspiring stuff about contrasts like you showed, ruth about sex.
and finally know the reason for the season John 3:16 also try 1 Peter 2:11,12 my favorite.

Answer 3

He doesn't have to make any decisions but he'd still do the things he already knows he'll do. He'd be a slave to it, to his perfect knowledge... and there's the real catch. Truth be told, omniscience and omnipotence butt heads when you consider whether or not God himself has "free will".

God perfectly and completely knows all of his future decisions. Given this knowledge, it follows logically that he can never EVER do anything other than what he KNOWS he's going to do and he is thus powerless to do anything besides what he knows he'll do. Therefore, he has no free will and he is not all powerful (he cannot behave in such a manner that would contradict his perfect and complete knowledge).

Answer 4

I really like this question because it brings up a lot of logical and practical problems with omniscience. I suppose the theist counter to this would be this:

Since "future" is a mortal concept, it is completely irrelevant to any description of God. God exists entirely outside of time, and can't even be understood by mortals (hence all our religious bickering) let alone described in terms of past and future.

The theist would probably go on to say that just because we can't understand God doesn't mean we can just rule him out of existence. As incomprehensible as he is, God is there and he is working (or at least watching) in the universe. We still need to acknowlege his presence (note: presence, not existence!) in the universe.

Answer 5

If God is omniscient and omnipotent, He won't have to do anything. Our existence will play out as He intended it to from the very beginning. We have free will, but God would be able to anticipate our decisions and already know the repercussions of those decisions.

Answer 6

Around and around it goes...

There is much internal contradiction to be found in religious dogma. You have found a good example. "God is omniscient" and "God gave us free will" are clearly at odds with one another. So too are "God is omnipotent" and "God gave us free will", as you point out. However, try as you might to illuminate these inconsistencies, these three ideas remain central to popular faith. Now, predestination is a doctrine that holds, essentially, that "free will" is an illusion and God knows our eternal fates beforehand, but very few churches subscribe to it.

Answer 7

God planned everything from before He set the universe in motion. out of the stretches of eternity He selected a portion of time to place everything in it, according to His will and plan.

then He did 6 days of Creative work, and from the seventh day... God has been resting, and is resting now. so He doesnt have to deal with anything that happens to come along because He already provided concerning it through His word - the Bible.

when anyone hears or reads His word and puts a faith call for something He's already provided... then His promises go into action.

how would you like to have an enjoyable life where you didnt have to work but you got what you planned for anyway?
.

Answer 8

Temporality is our prison. We cannot see past the walls of our succession of events in time. God is not so bound. His "thought" is not like ours, true, but only because his "thought" is so far superior to ours, that it is expressed both in time, so that we may experience it, and beyond the walls of time, so that all of reality may have it's being. All the universe is the expression of a rational mind. Did you know Jesus is called the Logos (John 1.1)? In the Greek mind, logos was not just a word spoken, as it is most often translated, but it is the rational principle of the universe whereby the seeker of truth may inquire how the universe works and may expect a reasonable answer. I suppose it is hard to see His "thought" when you are surrounded by it in every way. It simply seems as natural as air. But take away the air, and see how long we last without it.

Answer 9

"Can omniscient God who knows the future tell his omnipotent self to change his future mind?"

Ah a good one.

Answer 10

God has the whole world planned out with what is going to happen. just read the bible ( new testament ) and it is explained there as to what is happening and is going to happen. han read the book of revelations and it sure will make you believe it everything that is and will happen.