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Author Topic:   6 questions about an "omni" God
Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5900 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 17 of 21 (48911)
08-06-2003 9:51 AM
Reply to: Message 16 by Primordial Egg
08-06-2003 8:28 AM


Re: 6
I'm not sure of the implications here, but wouldn't the simplest Christian apologetic simply state that there are a near infinity of possible future paths from any given decision point. God or the Invisible Pink Unicorn or whatever supernatural entity is classed as omniscient may know all potential paths, but that fact doesn't constrain a particular ndividual from taking any given one of them. I.e., free will, at least as far as I understand the concept. Or doesn't this work out logically?

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 Message 16 by Primordial Egg, posted 08-06-2003 8:28 AM Primordial Egg has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by Primordial Egg, posted 08-06-2003 12:56 PM Quetzal has not replied
 Message 19 by Rrhain, posted 08-06-2003 6:05 PM Quetzal has replied

  
Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5900 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 21 of 21 (49062)
08-07-2003 2:54 AM
Reply to: Message 19 by Rrhain
08-06-2003 6:05 PM


Re: 6
If I ask you to "Pick a card. Any card," I know all possible outcomes. What I don't know is which one you'll pick and thus, I am not omniscient.
Unless we're going to say that omniscience is more akin to Epimetheus rather than Prometheus, there is still the problem of if you know what I am going to do and cannot be wrong, is there any possible way for me to do something else?
Yeah, I think this was the bit I was struggling with when I asked if the idea was logically sound. a) Does omniscience imply that the entity knows absolutely what decision an individual makes at a given decision point? If so, does that logically constrain the individual (i.e., no "free will")? b) Is it more like quantum uncertainty: all possible outcomes are known, but which particular outcome occurs is unconstrained (i.e., "free will" exists)? In this case, it might be possible to claim that your entity-of-choice established the ground rules in this fashion to permit free choice. It would mean that the entity purposefully set constraints on its OWN capabilities to grant free will to its creation (which gets into the whole omnipotent question.)
Tis a puzzler. I suppose these are the kind of profound angel-on-a-pinhead questions that have preoccupied the religious forever. Kinda wish they'd stick to those.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by Rrhain, posted 08-06-2003 6:05 PM Rrhain has not replied

  
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