Monday, October 11, 2010

God's Omniscience and Free Will

Do we have free will? Do I have any choices in life? Am I writing this because I want to, or because god is forcing me to do it? Most of us would like to think we have a choice. Most of us believe in "free will" where we actually effectively choose our fate.



We must be careful where we place our beliefs. Is god omniscient? If he is truly the omnipotent, omnibenevolent, creator god, he must be omniscient. Omniscient meaning all knowing. By all, I mean god must know what is, what has, and what has not yet come for all eternity (past, present, and future). If that is the case, god knows what you will do before you do it. Since one cannot contradict god, you must choose as god has determined you will choose. Then, do you have free will?



Let us look at it from another perspective. You have the choice to continue reading this passage, or to stop right now and do an infinite end of other possibilities. For the sake of argument, we will leave it to either keep reading, or not. You have that choice, that fork in the road right now before you. If you are still reading, you have chosen as such. In the same instance of time, god knew you would choose as you did. God knew you would keep reading, and he has known this forever if he is a truly omniscient being. In that context, the fork you believe you are seeing is no fork at all. You cannot choose otherwise, or you would be defying god's omniscience. To do that, would deny god's existence.

I will end now, but I will most likely resume this post at a later time.

No comments: