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Originally Posted by Xazy
Ustwo had it right (someone beat my kids analogy, though i use medicine and candy), knowing what choice someone will take does not mean that they have no free will.
I was babysitting my nephew the other day, I offered to let him stay up an hour late and watch tv if he wanted (I knew he would accept), he could have gone to bed, he did have a choice. He decided to watch tv.
The point is G-d knows us well enough to figure out what we will (or won't) do.
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But you see, it does mean we don't have free will if what we do is 100% predictable. It means that our choices are so constrained by whatever factors are at play, that we are no longer making the choice ourselves; we are doing what outside and internalized forces are pushing us to do.
And on the other front, this thread refers to free will versus fate. If fate were real (as suggested by taking the idea of an omniscient god at face value) then free will is simply an illusion and we all are doing what we have been destined to do.
UsTwo: That's very simplistic. One may tend towards taking the candy bar, but by no means will one take it every time. If one were to take it every time it was offered, then evidently that person has no free will. He or she cannot escape his or her drive for the candy bar.