Does God Have Free Will?

[VulcanWay]

Specifically the Judeo-Christian god.

The Christian god is posited as being omniscient. By definition that means that it is aware of what will happen from the beginning of time until the end of it.

That being so, it has seen the future that it will actually make, not the future that might have been had it chosen (and all of creation, for that matter) differently at any given decision-point. If that is so, then god itself has no free will - it simply acts on what its omniscient knowledge has told it will happen.

If god instead sees multiple outcomes of every choice (made by itself and all of creation) and makes its decisions as it goes then it cannot be said that god knows what will occur in the future - at best it can be said to know the infinite possible outcomes of what MIGHT occur. Given this, god is not actually omniscient, as an omniscient being would know what WILL happen not what MIGHT happen.

I'm curious as to your thoughts.

[RandFan]

Yes, a great paradox. Does god know what he will do tomorrow? Can he change his mind? You can't answer yes to both questions.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

What if god chooses not to be omniscient? Does he get free will then?

Just another incoherent aspect of the definition of god.

~~ Paul

[Lonewulf]

Heh. Then there's the question of whether or not God can make a boulder so heavy that he can't lift it.

[fuelair]

Yes, a great paradox. Does god know what he will do tomorrow? Can he change his mind? You can't answer yes to both questions.

Switches to parallel universe!:D

[Tex]

Another way of looking at it is that for each decision God makes, He is constrained to make the single most perfect choice. To do otherwise would render Him imperfect.

[Lonewulf]

Another way of looking at it is that for each decision God makes, He is constrained to make the single most perfect choice. To do otherwise would render Him imperfect.

If he's "constrained", then he's not omnipotent.

[jeremyp]

If God is omniscient, then nobody has free will, not just him. If God knows already that I am going to have peperoni on my pizza tomorrow, there's no way for me to choose otherwise, hence, no free will.

[Lonewulf]

If God is omniscient, then nobody has free will, not just him. If God knows already that I am going to have peperoni on my pizza tomorrow, there's no way for me to choose otherwise, hence, no free will.

You evil determinist you.

[Beerina]

If God is omniscient, then nobody has free will, not just him. If God knows already that I am going to have peperoni on my pizza tomorrow, there's no way for me to choose otherwise, hence, no free will.

Ahhh, but what is "free will", in this case? It's the freedom of your brain to process data and come to a decision, uncoerced. How is determinism coercing you to do something? The error in philosophy all these centuries has been presuming that the process of decision making was not deterministic, but "free". But that concept doesn't exist. If your mind, soul, whatever, isn't working according to some mechanism that's deterministic, then by what mechanism is it working? And don't say "random" because, while that voids determinism, it doesn't buy you anything as an "independent actor in the spiritual realm", whatever that might mean. You're now just deterministic with random influences. You still aren't "free will-ish" in the old-school sense.

[Dorian Gray]

If God is omniscient, that means he knows everything - every single thing that could possibly happen. It doesn't preclude him from choosing just one of those things.

I think that it's impossible to be omniscient and omnipotent at the same time (see the heavy rock cliche), but that you could be one or the other.

[Lonewulf]

I think that it's impossible to be omniscient and omnipotent at the same time (see the heavy rock cliche), but that you could be one or the other.

Omniscience has nothing to do with the rock, though. Omniscience is to know everything; it's entirely mental, nothing physical power or the power of creation. You haven't really solved the problem of Omnipotence at all by dropping off Omniscience.

[Jekyll]

Another way of looking at it is that for each decision God makes, He is constrained to make the single most perfect choice. To do otherwise would render Him imperfect.

We could rephrase that as everything God chooses is perfect. You still have to show that there is only a single perfect option for each choice.

[VulcanWay]

If God is omniscient, that means he knows everything - every single thing that could possibly happen. It doesn't preclude him from choosing just one of those things.

The point is that even if it were to know every possible outcome of every decision in all of creation, in the end only one of those outcomes can be chosen. I think that you miss my point that an omniscient god MUST know what WILL happen - knowing all possible outcomes does not mean one can fortell the future or prophesize.

We could rephrase that as everything God chooses is perfect. You still have to show that there is only a single perfect option for each choice.

I think that this is a fair answer. As god is perfect, it must make the single perfect choice for each situation. It still lacks free will, but a perfect being could not choose otherwise but the perfect option (given a very large picture - ie. Creation).

[porch]

These paradoxes make for fun logic games. I don't think, however, that they are a "problem" in Judeo-Christian theology. Any such holes are patched up neatly: God has powers so great that they are beyond our comprehension or imagination. He is not restrained by the same laws we are.

Just sayin'

`porch