If God is perfect, then God can create any possible universe. When he chose to create this universe, God knew (due to his omniscience) that he was creating a world in which I would eat a slice of pizza for lunch today. I had to have pizza for lunch today because this is part of the world God chose to create.
Defend your answer with theological determinism.
2007-12-11 07:52:51 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Yes, this is preparation for an exam, but I have studied it, I am just looking for objections or agreements I might have overlooked or would want to consider.
2007-12-11 08:08:49 · update #1
Judging from your description of 'perfect', then yes, perfect fore-knowledge prevents any possibility of freedom.
Think about what free will MEANS. You are free if you could have made a different choice from the one you did.
We say that objects have no freedom because we know exactly what they are going to do without question. A ball rolling downhill only follows one path.
If some entity knows exactly what you are going to do, how is your behaviour any different from that of a ball? There would be no way to justify saying that one has a choice and the other one does not. There is only one path in either case.
It makes no difference how you explain where the foreknowledge came from. If the knowledge exists when you make the choice, you didn't make a choice.
2007-12-11 11:49:34 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes.
Having the … knowledge … that something is going to happen doesn’t mean that you determined it, or that it was predetermined. It simply means you know it’s going to happen -- that’s all you can conclude.
Suppose your friend tells you he is going to chop a tree down -- and then proceeds to do so. You had knowledge of something that was going to happen, and it did happen. But your knowing didn’t affect your friends freewill to choose that action or cause the tree to be chopped down. If he had changed his mind then you would have been wrong about it. A God that has perfect knowledge of the universe and its interactions would just never be wrong about determining what will happen. But you are still free to choose. Knowing that someone will make a particular choice or do something doesn’t mean you determined it.
Along with God and freewill comes the ideas of heaven/hell and reward/punishment for our actions. Punishment and reward would make no sense if we did not have free will -- mans actions can only be rewarded or punished if we truly have freewill. And merit/reward would make no sense if everything was predetermined, as would punishment.
If God knows everything, then why doesn't he just send everyone to hell and heaven right now?
Answer: We actually have to go through with life (truly experience) our struggling and suffering -- or actually do the good works to gain the rewards. And likewise, we actually have to choose and do the evil deeds to be punished for them. If God sent everyone to heaven or hell just because he knows what will happen, then the people in hell could complain that they never actually did those evil deeds. And the people in heaven would have never really actually done those things which merit a reward in heaven.
Interestingly enough, this destiny and freewill issue is the same issue that comes up in the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. There was a “pre-crime” unit of 3 psychics who could predict who will commit crimes, and then they arrested and punished them before they could actually commit the crimes. The issue was resolved somewhat in the movie as it was finally realized that they shouldn't be punishing people for something they actually didn't do. And it was also realized that in many cases not all the psychics were in complete agreement on an outcome (1 dissenting opinion = minority report, referring to the court legal term -- a dissenting report by a minority of judges that are making the decision).
2007-12-12 14:40:13 · answer #2 · answered by Larry K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If god created a universe with the possibility of freedom, then it would not know that you were going to have pizza for lunch today. Where is the freedom in pre-determined destiny? The "perfection" that deterministic theists speak of is slavery.
2007-12-11 07:59:58 · answer #3 · answered by phil8656 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Think of it this way, you have two triangles on a piece of paper both triangles can see each other in two dimensional form, now your God being able to see things in a three dimensional form if you take the one triangle and put in into a box the triangles would not be able to see each other through the wall of the box but you being able to see every thing in three dimensions could see the triangle in the box and out of the box. This is because objects in the same dimension have to follow the laws of their dimension but you being in another dimension superior to the two dimensional world do not have to follow the rules of this dimension and there for will be able to see and view things in ways objects in the two dimensional world cannot. Now just because God sees and knows everything does not mean God planed out your life for you it just basically means time has no effect on God there is no beginning or end for God everything just is. God being able to see and know when your gonna take a bite of pizza doesn't mean God planned that exact second of your life out for you. Going back to our triangles say we draw two lines on a piece of paper one on top of the other and at the end of the top line we make a wall if we put both triangles in the middle of the two lines and let them choose their paths we can see them start the path at the beginning and we know what the paths lead to so in a since from the beginning we knew what their end would be sense we see the path in its entirety even tho we did not make them choose that path. This is just my theory and my belief obviously not everyone will agree with it but its how I look at things.
2007-12-12 09:25:08 · answer #4 · answered by Candace B 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The rebuttal lies in a misconception about how God views events in relation to time.
We think he sees everything from "Start" to "Finish," but on a larger scale. He doesn't look forward or backward but but sees it all in a single moment. So every single event: past, present, and future all are in the "present" for God. He didn't foresee you eating pizza, but sees you eating pizza presently at all times in history and future. If you eat pizza one million times in your life then God witnesses it as if you did it all in one, present moment. Everything you will ever do is present.
The only visual way to describe it is if you take several layers of transparent projector paper and put an event on every layer in a different spot and then put them all on top of each other, you will see all events at once. God sees all events: past, present and future this way and so therefore, freedom is actually possible. He reacts according to what you're doing now since everything is "now" for him.
Again, the fallacy lies in a projection of our view of time as his view with an attempt to magnify it's scale
2007-12-11 09:38:46 · answer #5 · answered by Numen 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I believe God exists outside of time, and therefore everything, for Him, either is, has, or will happen. He created time in order to keep everything from happening all at once for His creations. This explains how God can know everything.
He gave us free will to make our own decisions, but due to the fact that time has no meaning for Him, He already knows what we will do. This is entirely different from the notion that He controls us.
2007-12-11 08:09:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋