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Originally Posted by pennywise121
basically, if a being is omniscient, and truly knows all, there is the issue of free will even within these relatively simple choices.
omniscience implies infallability of knowledge (for if one truly knows all, then one cannot be wrong about anything or else one is not truly omniscient) with this in mind, we return to the issue of free will. if our diety-of-choice knows everything we are going to do, and is infallable in this knowledge, we cannot do anything other than that which is known to said deity, and hence, no free will.
on the other page, if a god is not truly omniscient, this argument falls apart (but assuming a god is not all-knowing leads to its own problems)
simply being a passive observer creates problems, if we take omniscience to be infallible (as it must be). the state of all-knowing implies that god/dess, etc. knows not only the choices available, but what one will be chosen (or else it is not truly a state of all-knowing). so, we have no issue with divine intervention, as it is not necessary if the god of choice knows everything.
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I disagree on several counts.
First, infallibility of knowledge is questionable against our ability to understand things which are infinite (be it space, time or knowledge). If there are, in fact, multiple dimensions, so to speak, where branches of decisions are made across time slices, which one you fall into it random, but in thoery all possible choices are chosen in one slice or another. Of course, this is purely academic, but then, so is the inital argument.
Second, a god or goddess in any sense other than a modern monotheistic sense, has never been omnipresent or omniscient. Polytheistic religions, which are still in existence and which have, in many cases, been around far longer than any modern monotheistic religion, have always been wrought with stories of warring and competing deities. This could not be so if they were all omniscient for (I think) obvious reasons. Perhaps this question, then, could be answered differently by a Christian than a Hindu? A Jew than a Pagan? Just food for thought.