Brilliant WWR post
Nice debunking of the attempted reconciliation of free will and omniscience by Andy over at The World Wide Rant. Andy’s right, you can’t justify believing in both, not even by redefining omniscience, as Michelle attempts, or free will, as Steve does in Andy’s comments.
If by “free” you mean that God doesn’t know what you are going to do, then omniscience makes free will impossible, of course. But if by free you mean God doesn’t determine what you are going to do, that YOU are the one who determines your actions (or at least some of them–I think we all must grant that many of our actions are unconscious or in other ways outside our free will), then omniscience does not necessarily make free will impossible. At least it is not immediately obvious that it does and the sophisticated and quite unobvious arguments that purport to prove omniscience and free will are incompatible are by no means uncontroverted.I think most people would define “free” the second way. However, if you insist on defining it the first way, any Theist will happily grant that you’ve proven “free will” is impossible, by YOUR special definition.
Most people believe the second? Well, yea, most people are idiots. Andy’s definition is by no means “special,” it’s the only conceivable definition in a God created universe. If God created the universe, and he knows exactly what his creation is going to do at every moment in Eternity, then he created the universe specifically with all those happenings planned out. If you want an omniscient, omnipresent, creator God, then you simply have to accept that you do not have free will.
I prefer the other option: God didn’t create the universe, and I can do exactly what I want.
Popularity: 6% [?]
I guess that the only reason why I believe that both exist is the biblical principles that God created men with free wills so that we would choose to love Him and serve Him, unlike the angels, who, because of Lucifer, were stripped of their free will.
Why does this preclude Him from being omnicient? The Bible speaks of Pharoh as being unrepentant, and because of this God used him to set the freedom of the slaves into motion. God foreknew Pharaoh’s heart and therefore used it to his advantage.
Just my opinion. I guess we will all find out one day.
But, see, the Biblical principles are contradictory without a lot of logical wrangling. And that wrangling is both tautalogical and nonsensical.
Emmy blow-by-blow
Sorry I got started late, I was watching football and lost track of time. 8:50 pm – Funny acceptance speech…