D
Dph
Guest
If God knows everything, than how can there be free will???
- Status
C
Church_Militant
Guest
Fairly easily…Omniscience does not mean that one does not have the freedom to choose. Just because I have foreknowlege of an event does not mean that the participants have no free will to change their ways or the outcome.
J
jp2fan
Guest
If I know my next door neighbor is going to have a party tonight, and I wish they wouldn’t, does that mean I call the cops and make sure it doesn’t happen? No, we let them go ahead, knowing that they’re adults and can make their own decisions, even if those decisions are wrong.
T
Tantum_ergo
Guest
Hmm.
I like your answer, CM, and I would add my :twocents: –
One problem with thinking that “God knows what I’m going to do before I do it, so how can I have free will” is that the statement assumes that God exists IN TIME (as we do). Since God CREATED Time, He most assuredly cannot exist in it; a Creator cannot exist in a creation.
So, rather than thinking linearly, think outside the box.
God IS. . . always was, always is, always will be. He doesn’t “see the future” as we would think it–He IS the future, and the present, and the past. He isn’t going, ok, today is April 9, 2005, and I’m going to create this kid John Doe who will say his first word on April 6, 2006, get a black eye at school on November 14, 2014, get married to this kid Jane Roe on June 19, 2031, develop kidney stones. . .etc. etc. But apparently a lot of people think that God DOES EXACTLY THAT with people, and, so, since He “knows” all, knows that John is going to marry Jane so how does that allow John to have “free will?” Yadda yadda.
How can we possibly LIMIT God to OUR way of thinking, being, and existence?
I like your answer, CM, and I would add my :twocents: –
One problem with thinking that “God knows what I’m going to do before I do it, so how can I have free will” is that the statement assumes that God exists IN TIME (as we do). Since God CREATED Time, He most assuredly cannot exist in it; a Creator cannot exist in a creation.
So, rather than thinking linearly, think outside the box.
God IS. . . always was, always is, always will be. He doesn’t “see the future” as we would think it–He IS the future, and the present, and the past. He isn’t going, ok, today is April 9, 2005, and I’m going to create this kid John Doe who will say his first word on April 6, 2006, get a black eye at school on November 14, 2014, get married to this kid Jane Roe on June 19, 2031, develop kidney stones. . .etc. etc. But apparently a lot of people think that God DOES EXACTLY THAT with people, and, so, since He “knows” all, knows that John is going to marry Jane so how does that allow John to have “free will?” Yadda yadda.
How can we possibly LIMIT God to OUR way of thinking, being, and existence?
S
st_felicity
Guest
I tend to look at this question in the more complex and ultimately unknowable dimension that is God’s timelessness. I see it this way…God is the creator of time and the creator of man (and everything else). Go is not subject to his creation–time or man (or anything else). But man is subject to God’s other creations and affected by them. So we experience time one moment after the next and make choices accordingly. God, being outside of time experriences our lives in the here and now–past, present, and future. that is how he knows what we do…but we still have free will to choose–perhaps time is a componant of the gift of free will. It gives us a unique freedom to choose our future.
S
st_felicity
Guest
I need to learn to type faster–I end up looking redundant!
Thanks Tantum Ergo!!!
Thanks Tantum Ergo!!!- Status