What brings this question to mind is the thread about prayer vs. the divine plan. Recent posts in that thread have strayed a bit into questions about how the freewill of man can be reconciled with an omniscient creator. Since this subject is off-topic to that thread, I would love to discuss it within its own thread.
Might not god roll the dice before we are born, and we get to choose our fancy? That would imply a beforebirth similar to an afterlife, but after all, god is omnipotent, as well as omniscient. Or, can god even roll the dice, since he would already know the outcome? It is not a trivial question, since computer programmers are familiar with the difficulty in achieving true randomness from a machine that is designed for 'perfect predicability'.
Of course, there is the problem of circular reasoning. Any randomness that god manages to achieve is destroyed by his fore-knowledge of those outcomes. So, is this one 'power' that eludes him? Or, can he at least achieve pseudo-randomness, and therefore claim pseudo-omniscience?
Oh, and one more question. Does god have free-will? Or does his omniscience not include his own actions?
This message has been edited by mogur, 05-15-2004 09:00 PM