I agree that knowing does not equal making one do a particular thing or another, but rather my concern is with the implications of omniscience when it concerns the future. If we assume that omniscience indicates that God knows what choice we will make before we reach the point in time we will make it, would that make our choice predetermined (even if we don’t know what determines our choice)?
SS:
Well, let’s remember that the word we should be using is,
predestined.
Destiny has to do with
fate. It has to do with
purpose. and purpose has to do with being
called. What is man, and each man, called to do? This is a very important consideration for each man and woman alive. If one works in a factory, one recognizes, intuitively, that every other thing in that factory has a purpose, but, some men cannot see their own. The windows have purpose; a ventilator has purpose; but, a man is sometimes lost. That would seem to portray that man has a function in his destiny.
Were he to be
predetermined, he would have no “say so.” He would be be
programmed to follow a way without personal (name removed by moderator)ut. He could not escape the path for the fences. But, destiny has that one slight difference. It is not exactly the same as being determined. It has something more, something that we can take possession of, in a sense. We can hop the fence if we want. We can tear it down, if we want. Of course, all of this is still bound by our capabilities and limitations. But, in any event, we are deficiently incapable. And, we are contingently limited. Even if somehow we were granted absolute freedom.
An infinite being spans an unbounded duration. Time must exist, whenever it does, within, so to speak, this unbounded duration. The immobile, unbounded duration completely encircles, surrounds and pervades mobile being. If it can “see,” it sees everything within that bubble of time (the universe) at once. But, according to Catholic faith, it does not move men (or women) morally. God is the Prime Mover, but that means that he moves finite things in a Primary Way, understood to be as a Whole. Men are secondary movers. We consist of parts, and we are able to move our Whole by a series of moving parts. A billiard ball is a Whole that cannot move itself. It can only be moved by something else, something that is a primary or secondary mover, external to its precise whole. In fact, if we retrospectively follow the path of the moving parts of a composite being, we eventually come to the first moving part. And, we discover that it can’t move itself either. But, we know motion (and change) exist, so we continue to look for a further mover. That search will eventually lead us to another
chain of movers and moved. But, as we notice, each and every piece of the chain moves precisely because it is being simultaneously moved by another. This is why we think that pre-destined = pre-determined.
In some way, we are influenced. Our journey towards our destinies is not without some sort of map. Nevertheless, a small number of us do not grasp it. The map appears homogeneous to them, like a large tract of flat land with no roads or sidewalks, no recognizable landmarks, and no end of it in sight. This is an example of exactly how free our acts can be. It may be as simple as the impetus to start walking.
I ask this because it seems that omniscience shows the outcome of an event before that event has taken place.
But, if you think about it, it can’t be. God “sees” the entire event in a God-instant. He doesn’t see the end
before the beginning.
If we assume that God’s omniscience cannot be violated (in other words, if God knows I will choose A, I would not choose B) then if God knows I will choose A in some event in the future, is there a possibility that I could have chosen B instead?
In a manner of looking at it, the making of a choice is the same as motion. The mind moves through a series of five steps to reach a conclusion, according to John Dewey. So, God would “see” that progression to its conclusion as well. One is not restricted in that progression. The influences on one’s thinking may be many or few, but certainly they consist of everything a human is capable of.
In other words, though the idea that God has knowledge of what we’ll choose before we choose it doesn’t mean his knowledge influences our choice, does it mean that our choices are predetermined by some unknown force beforehand?
To the extent that we have been given a particular set of knowledges, we are influenced, but, not programmed. I think that God “sees” our movement through events as a simultaneity, not as a before-in-time. On the other hand, omniscience does give God the advantage of knowing every possible course we might take, and he can easily calculate which one we will take, based upon our nature, but, even that occurs simultaneously with the action. Remember, there is only “time” for us. To be able to make this intelligible is to understand that life is quite metaphysical.
Our words are necessarily time-bound. Try to step into a Now. Try to see it as if it had more duration than it does. Then you can sort of understand it. Also, remember that we cannot speak with out verbal tenses. The construction of our sentences requires tense, which is time. Dematerialize a Now, then consider it. Your ideas won’t be perfect, but, you’ll get what’s called an “inkling.”
God bless,
jd
