Hi all,
I may be in way over my head, but here goes anything....
If God is omniscient and omnipotent, then he knows how any particular being he allows to be born will turn out. With this foreknowledge, the fact that he allowed a being to be born that will turn out to be a murderer, a moral person, an athiest, a Christian, etc, HAS to mean that there was no choice on the part of the created being.
Taking an example like Shiloh's 132lb son that wanted to be an offensive tackle...the father in this case does not have infallible foreknowledge...he is using knowledge of the game dynamics etc, to make a very good assumption that his son will not be able to play this position (or if allowed will get hurt playing it).
Let's twist this around a bit....
- say a father IS omniscient and omnipotent
- say he knows that if his wife gets pregnant the child will grow up to be a "football player"
- say he decrees that all football players are damned and go to hell and all non-players will be saved and go to heaven
Does the son have any choice (free will) in his damnation or salvation (or his football career) given that the father
knows what will happen if he allows the child to be conceived and born?
Does the father have any right to judge the son's football career given that "HE" stacked the deck against the son?
It seems to me that omniscience and omnipotence in a creator cannot exist along side free will in the created.
This also seems to beg the question of omnibenevolence. It seems to me that an omniscient/potent god allows beings to exist for the sole purpose of damnation.
Someone please tell me if my simple logic is off.
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Asgara
"An unexamined life is not worth living" Socrates via Plato