From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houca!hogpc!houxm!5941ux!dje
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Re:  Omniscience and Free Will
Article-I.D.: 5941ux.253
Posted: Wed Apr 27 10:26:58 1983
Received: Thu Apr 28 06:12:31 1983

I must reply to Tim's points.  He opens with:

	"Some of us claim that predestination and free will are mutually 
	exclusive...  Others (all of whom, by some strange coincidence, are 
	Christians who are attempting to justify Christian doctrine -- 
	obviously unbiased, right?) claim that since we don't know
	our choices in advance, then we are still free, even though God knows
	what we'll do."

and concludes with:

	"You can't have both absolute foreknowledge and freedom of choice in a 
	system.  That's all there is to it."

First, I am not attempting to justify Christian doctrine.  I am Jewish, and
as can be seen from my other submissions to this newsgroup, I do not try
to promote Jewish doctrine, either.

I don't know whether Tim believes in free will.  I do, and I maintain that
belief in free will is a tenable and consistent position WHETHER OR NOT one 
believes in an omniscient God.  Omniscience entails (fore-)knowledge and
NOT the deciding of future events.  As long as God doesn't appear to me out
of the sky and tell me what I'm going to be doing in the future, my choices
are not affected by divine foreknowledge.  Even in Jewish prophetic tradition,
whatever future knowledge that may have been revealed to the prophets did not
prejudice their choice of a course of action.

Where does predestination fit in?  Predestination would seem to mean
that our choices are decided for us beforehand.  As such, I don't believe in
it despite my belief in one omniscient, omnipotent God.

It's my opinion that a belief in free will is an essential ingredient in the
acceptance of full responsibility for one's actions.  That's one of the reasons
I believe in free will.  My belief in an omniscient God does not contradict my
belief in free will, and my belief in free will does not invalidate my personal
view of God.  Nobody HAS to believe in God or free will; on the other hand,
there is no hypocrisy or inconsistency in believing in both.

Dave Ellis / Bell Labs, Piscataway NJ
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