It STILL means you have no free will if God is omniscient.
2007-12-03 06:08:18 · 10 answers · asked by Meat Bot 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
But then again, you have no free will in any case.
2007-12-03 06:09:46 · update #1
Jon: You said "Suppose I see you reaching for a jar of cling peaches at the Winn Dixie. I know that you are going to pick it up off the shelf and buy it. How does my knowledge of that influence you?"
-- It doesn't, but that's because YOU don't KNOW it. God WOULD know it, therefore you cannot decide not to take the peaches.
2007-12-03 06:18:45 · update #2
Jon: If God doesn't know the future then he's not omniscient and the bible is wrong.
2007-12-03 06:19:45 · update #3
Beta: Fine, let's assume you are right. In that case you still don't have free will because your choice has already been made before you were born.
2007-12-03 06:21:44 · update #4
Ed H: It DOES, because then he'd be wrong and he can't be wrong according to you.
2007-12-03 06:22:37 · update #5
How does it prevent you from having free choice?
Suppose I see you reaching for a jar of cling peaches at the Winn Dixie. I know that you are going to pick it up off the shelf and buy it. How does my knowledge of that influence you?
IMHO one mistake in thinking many people make is assuming that the science fiction model of the future is reality. The future is not a place, or a series of potential events just waiting for the right sequence on the calendar to happen.
The future exists only in our imaginations. Free will means we have been given a great gift, the gift of co-creating reality, co-creating history with God. God can't know what shirt I will wear tomorrow because that's just a thought that hasn't been thought yet, and I have full control of my thoughts and decisions -- not God. That's the crux of free will.
So God finds out what shirt I will wear when I get up, stumble around in the dark, and grab the blue square-cut one with the spaghetti stain on the front. Not before, because that's not reality.
2007-12-03 06:11:38 · answer #1 · answered by Acorn 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, if omniscience is "seeing the future" and not "being in the future and the present simultaneously", then you are correct. However, if the reverse is true, then God's knowledge is based not on what we will do, but what we have done and are doing in the space-time continuum, a continuum to which man has no access nor comprehension.
God is not bound by the same constraints that we mortals are. Time is one of those constraints IMO.
EDIT: No, my actions won't be made until they are made. I didn't say I was exempt from the time continuum. But I think that God is. Just because we are constrained by time does not mean that God is. Thus, God knows and we still have free will.
Science tells us that time affects different things differently (a photon of light, for example). Wouldn't it be silly to assume that God is subject to everything we are, and affected by those things the same way that we are, considering all the special properties we believe God possesses?
2007-12-03 06:16:34 · answer #2 · answered by Open Heart Searchery 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Looks like you are beginning to expand in Spirit.
So, it bothers you that you have no free will in true reality???
You get to choose how you experience your circumstances. That's free
You get to choose what to focus on here. That's free.
You get to experience the consequences of the choices you make whether enjoyable or not enjoyable. That's free.
I think free is a relative term.
Blessings as you practice breathing around these questions which will increase your relationship with the Almighty.
Sounds like you might just be a little peeved at God. Well, that's ok too. Thinking about this stuff is how we ended up with computers and a way to get to Answers. It's creative thinking at its starting point.
Keep on wondering.
:)
2007-12-03 06:14:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Good Question, May I Add, "Because you Can, doesn't Mean you Should". BTW, the Presence of a Omnipotent God Violates the Law of the Conservation of Energy.
2007-12-03 08:11:32 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is like this. Space and time are unique. If a space is occupied by one thing, another thing cannot occupy it. If you are doing one thing, you cannot do other thing.
One may ask, if you put a smaller cube in a bigger cube, then both of them occupy a part of the space, but they are not.
Similarly one may say, I am watching TV and also attending a phone call, but he is not doing two things on the same segment of time.
2007-12-03 09:39:48 · answer #5 · answered by Gee Waman 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, no matter what God does to influence you actions, he cannot make a choice for you. You make the ultimate decision to do some thing or another.
2007-12-03 06:15:37 · answer #6 · answered by gerafalop 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't prevent you from doing otherwise. It is merely knowledge of what will happen.
It does not matter if God know's or anyone else. Free will is not determined by foreknowledge.
God cannot know something false so he wouldn't know what we didn't choose.
2007-12-03 06:15:09 · answer #7 · answered by Ed H 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that knowing what you will do gives you the opportunity to think about it and plan the best course of action. Maybe you can't change the event but you can change how you handle it. Plus, if it comes to something that you are personaly and physically doing, you Always have the power Not to do it.
2007-12-03 06:14:45 · answer #8 · answered by Shayne T 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
???? If I know my daughter well enough to know how she will behave in a certain situation, does that take away her ability to do something different. Your argument against free will makes no sense.
2007-12-03 06:12:46 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
so why argue?
2007-12-03 06:11:45 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋