From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Free will and predestination make no sense
Article-I.D.: unc.4968
Posted: Tue Apr 12 17:51:32 1983
Received: Wed Apr 13 19:55:14 1983


Choice. What is choice? An entity can be said to choose when we see
that it has chosen only one of a plurality of possible courses of
action. Thus, any active entity, sentient or not, can be said to
choose. (I am establishing this definition for purposes of this
discussion; there are other possible definitions.)

The idea of "free will" is ill-defined, but it usually means
that there is an agent which chooses in such a way that its
choice is not determined in advance. The choice is in some sense
"free", that is, its source is not definable. We can thus distinguish
between the deterministic choice of a computer executing a branch-on-
logical-condition operation and the free choice of a human.

Now let's postulate God, that is, an omnipotent and omniscient being
with full foreknowledge of the consequences of any choice It makes.
The first fact to be noted is that this being can only make one free
choice. Given full foreknowledge, the choices that will be made by the
being in the future are entirely determined once the first choice
is made. By any action, this being negates Its own free will in the
future; It is instantly bound forever to the path It takes, or else
It doesn't have true foreknowledge. Another way to look at this is that
It makes all Its choices at once.

The concept of "responsibility for one's actions" is, I am sure, familiar
enough to require no definition. God is responsible for Its single action,
which our Xian friends will tell us was creating the Universe and binding
Itself to a predetermined sequence of actions with respect to that Universe.
(If God's actions weren't predetermined, than neither are any of ours.)
Every consequence of that action is Its responsibility, since It knew each
and every tiny consequence before acting. God is responsible for sin, as
surely as if It had Itself committed every crime, because It did! When
It acted, It knew exactly what would happen! It knew that It was creating
Charles Manson, knew that Sharon Tate would be brutally murdered, and knew
that It could just as easily (given omnipotence) have made the Universe
differently so that it didn't happen, yet It went ahead and killed her.

(Sorry, I've strayed a bit.)

The ideas of free choice and predestination are incompatible because
if it is free it can't be predicted -- if it can be predicted, it is
determined by some combination of factors, and therefore is not free.
For Xians, you can have God knowing everything in advance, OR you can
have free will; it is impossible to reconcile the two. (It is also, if
not impossible, then at least beyond human power to reconcile omni-
benevolence with predestination, but then God wouldn't have made Hell
if he was omnibenevolent anyway.)

Tim