If God creates me knowing that I will deny him and end up in Hell, I can have no other conclusion than to fulfill his knowledge. Whether or not I make the choice, God knew this choice before I was created, so what choice is that really? I have the choice to deny god, that is all, either I didn't have freewill or god isn't omniscient. What about this premise doesn't make sense to many believers?
2007-10-29 04:30:17 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Eric that may be true if my friend were omniscient and there were no other option than for me to do exactly as they had expected, I have no other choice.
2007-10-29 04:49:10 · update #1
Let me rephrase, if god is omniscient, his knowledge cannot be incorrect. I cannot choice an option other than the one he knows of. If I am able he is not omniscient. If I am not, then I do not have free will.
2007-10-29 04:52:29 · update #2
How are people really defining "choice" in this matter? If there's absolutely... ABSOLUTELY no way that we will ever do anything to contradict God's perfect and complete knowledge, can we REALLY say that we have "choice"? I'm not saying that God drags us by the arm, physically hurtling us into each new action we take or don't take... but as we ARE, according to the assumption that God is omniscient, shifting and shuffling our every cell and atom and neuron in accordance with God's knowledge, we will N-E-V-E-R do anything to contradict what God KNOWS we'll do.
For instance, God knows that at some point in the future, I'll make the decision between drinking Diet Coke or Fruit Punch with my lunch. I may start thinking about it now. I may fuss about it for days, months, years, tossing the "options" back and forth in my mind, but when I finally come to that moment, the moment that God knew I would come to, I WILL choose exactly what God knew I would choose. My every behavior leading up to the "decision", and my action to carry out such a "decision", were never only "possibilities" to God. God KNEW.
And how could I ever do anything other than what God KNOWS?
Unless this "god", if it exists (which it doesn't, but we're pretending), is NOT all knowing.
2007-10-29 05:12:47 · answer #1 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are so right. The scriptural evidence also backs up the point that God is not omniscient. He does however know everything going on at the moment.
Also, as we can do he can do better. If we by collecting data on weather, on earthquakes, on tsunamis can predict what shall happen fairly accurately -- God can do this infinitely better.
So, while God has given us free will and does not try to predict or control our actions, he does know what natural forces will do more or less in the future.
The extent of his knowledge, we cannot know for sure, and all that matters is that he has given us free will, and this free will means that God is not omniscient.
There is an interesting discussion of little know scriptures about how God makes prophecies come true here:
http://bythebible.page.tl/How-Prophecies-Work.htm
Here the subject about Jesus and Judas are discussed among some.
There are two related subjects discussed also. They may be found in the fourth division on the main page of that link.
2007-10-29 11:43:20 · answer #2 · answered by Fuzzy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Some things we don't understand because we don't study it or as God for understanding. And there are many things we don't know. God does want us to make the right choice, but there a risks with the choices we make. Faith and Trust have a big role to play about believing in what God says is true. That is love, God dosen't force us...
2007-10-29 12:33:09 · answer #3 · answered by gg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds good on the surface, but let us say you are come to a point where a decision must be made (2 choices for simplicity - you are offered an apple or a banana)...and a close friend or family member is there who knows you very well (they know you don't like bananas)...if they knew that you would pick the apple instead of banana...and you indeed picked the apple, did you still have free choice?
Knowing what you would do is not the same as controlling what you do.
~ Eric Putkonen
2007-10-29 11:47:02 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Is not physics and freewill contradictory to the atheist?
I don't see how an atheist explains freewill at all.
2007-10-29 11:40:26 · answer #5 · answered by Matthew T 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am not a believer but this is false logic - knowing the future is not the same as controlling it
2007-10-29 11:33:05 · answer #6 · answered by bregweidd 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
40% are not smart enough to understand it.
60% are smart enough but don't want to believe it.
Matthew T: Yes! That's why we don't have free will.
2007-10-29 11:37:51 · answer #7 · answered by Meat Bot 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋