Can God be philosophically compatible with free will?

[Richca]

Richca:

Actually, the more I think about it, if God is pure act, Being itself, creation which is not God but a creature of God, can only be coherently conceived as something freely done by God, that is, not under compulsion or necessity of his own divine nature and will, but through free choice, freely willed.

Yes, this must indeed be true @Richca, for any being of pure actuality must be fully self sufficient and thus completely independent of any and all things beyond itself; therefore, it cannot possibly be something that can ever be conceived as having needed to create, and therefore you should be able to contemplate of a reality by which they did not create. However, we already know that there are problems that come about when we hold both the idea of an immutable being who created the universe, and the idea that said immutable being could’ve created differently or not at all due to its own complete and independent perfection.

In reference to the second part of your paragraph here, I do not see any problems. I believe you have created a problem where none exist. Creation does not add being to God nor does it take away being from God. Creation is not about God’s being or existence per se but about the bringing into existence beings other than God. Creatures are not God but they are infinitely inferior and distinct from God.

God’s free choice to create or not to create does not change him which would involve potentiality in God to some new accidental being or existence, an imperfection in God to some further development in being. This is not possible with God who is Being or Existence itself and who possesses being in its plentitude in an infinite degree. Whatever God could become so to speak, he already is. Again, creation does not increase or decrease God’s being or existence but it concerns bringing into existence beings other than God.

 

[quaestio45]

Creation does not add being to God nor does it take away being from God. Creation is not about God’s being or existence per se but about the bringing into existence beings other than God. Creatures are not God but they are infinitely inferior and distinct from God.

Yes, I agree. Thus, God cannot be forced through his nature of pure actuality to act, because only what is needed would be the drive of an unfree being. Therefore, either he is free, or he does not exist.