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Author Topic:   Does Christianity allow for free will?
JustinC
Member (Idle past 4875 days)
Posts: 624
From: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Joined: 07-21-2003


Message 19 of 45 (78325)
01-14-2004 2:51 AM
Reply to: Message 13 by :æ:
01-05-2004 2:13 PM


Re: Good, better, best. ...
quote:
There's a problem here. In the typical Christian conceptualization of God, His foreknowledge is exhaustive and infallible. If that is the case, then your statement "He ... knew what might happen" is actually false. With infallible foreknowledge, He must've known what would necessarily follow his decision to create humans. In fact, its meaningless to speak of free will at all if God's knowledge is thus. All events are necessarily consistent with God's foreknowledge at the instant of creation and God is therefore culpable for all outcomes.
I used to argue for this, but now I'm not so sure. How does foreknowledge contradict free will? In other words, how does someone knowing what I am going to do negate the fact that I had free will to do otherwise? Let's say I can peer into my past and watch it like a video. I know exactly what I am going to do in the relative future of the event I am watching, but does that mean that I didn't have free will to do otherwise? Is there a logical contradiction between foreknowledge and free will? I've read Pike's piece, "Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will are Incompatible", in which he attempts to do just this. Then I read Plantinga's "Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will are Compatible" in which he seems to dismantle Pike's piece. Out of curiousity, have you read any interesting pieces on this subject?
I'm very hesitant to debate either side. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'd agree with you. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, I'd disagree. And on Sunday I don't give a damn.
I do agree, though, that the free will defense as a solution to the problem of evil has contradictory (or atleast unconventional) implications about the Nature of Heaven.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 13 by :æ:, posted 01-05-2004 2:13 PM :æ: has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 20 by Newborn, posted 01-14-2004 8:24 PM JustinC has not replied
 Message 21 by Asgara, posted 01-14-2004 8:37 PM JustinC has not replied
 Message 24 by :æ:, posted 01-15-2004 12:35 PM JustinC has not replied

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