From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!inuxa!claus
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Re: Re: Foreknowledge => Determinism, no - (nf)
Article-I.D.: inuxa.197
Posted: Fri Apr 15 08:53:43 1983
Received: Mon Apr 18 23:02:30 1983
References: ihlpf.131

I enjoy these discussions about determinism and free will very much.  One
thing they always make me think of is something I refer to as a random
event.  What if I map out possible actions and determine which action I
take based on what most people agree to be random events(rolling of die,
flipping of coins,random number generator on a computer,etc.). Will 'God'
know what the final outcome of any sequence of random events are?  Is there
really any such thing as random events?  
To give an example of what I mean suppose I leave my office and star walking.
The first person I meet I ask for a number between 1 and 12, the second person
for a number between 1 and 28, and the third person for a number between 1
and 24. The fourth person I ask for a city in the US.  I have previously
decided that I am going to drive to that city at the time(3rd person) on the
day(2nd person) of the month(1st person).  Now I repeat the question- does
'God' know what will happen before I leave my office?  If he does I don't
see where I had any choice in the matter.  If nothing is random(everything
is predictable) then life is nothing more than a giant computer program
being run on a giant computer.  It has no meaning since the end result
is already known.
I would like to know what other people think about 'random events'.

Dave Claus   ABI/Indy

P.S.  By the way I'm going to flip a coin to decide whether or not to send
this article.