Thread: Ultimate God?
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Old 11-22-2004, 02:02 PM   #58 (permalink)
asaris
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Well, there are a number of ways to explain how God knows the future; the most common is simply that God is outside of time. He doesn't really know ahead of time what we'll choose, he knows then. It's just that for him, then is now.

I probably have an argument for my claim that the proposition "God knows..." entails A, but I'll have to look them up. It's been a while since I've done that sort of philosophy. Just to check, do you have any arguments for your claim?

There is a somewhat common position among contemporary Philosophers of Religion that seems similar to your viewpoint when you were a Christian called "Open Theism". It holds that God does not know all things in advance, but knows us so well, and the universe so well, that he has a very good idea about what will happen. And there's something to be said for the position. But the problem is that even the very near future, tomorrow say, is dependant on so many free choices that even if God is 99.99% sure about any given free decision, the odds of God's guess about tomorrow would be fantastically small.

For what it's worth, there is an issue I believe to be valid floating in the background. The question shouldn't be "How is God's foreknowledge compatible with human freedom?", but rather "How is God's providence compatible with human freedom?" If God truly ordains all things, not only knows them but causes them to be, how can we possibly be free. This has come up before, so I think I'll start a new thread with my own views up for discussion.
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