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From: teitz@aecom.UUCP (Eliyahu Teitz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Divine omniscience
Message-ID: <1284@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 17:49:51 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1284
Posted: Mon Mar 18 17:49:51 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 08:15:41 EST
References: <941@sjuvax.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 41

> 
> In article <221@cmu-cs-gandalf.ARPA> hua@cmu-cs-gandalf.UUCP writes:
> >If God is omniscient, he knows what I'm thinking and what I will do.
> >Therefore, I don't have freedom of choice.  If at some point in my life
> >I will have to choose between a or b, God knows I will pick "a".  Therefore
> >I can't pick b.  But yet he gets upset at people's choices, even though
> >he knows they had no alternative.
> >
> >The only way out of this is if God doesn't know absolutely everything.
> >Therefore, he isn't omniscient.  Since omniscience is a power, he can't
> >be omnipotent.
> >
> >Chris Larsen at CMU
> 
> 
>                    This raises a very interesting question (apologies if this
> has been beaten to death already).  One of the unquestionable characteristics
> of God, at least for most people, is that he is omniscient.  Presumably, this
> omniscience includes knowledge of the future. I think there are few people who
> hold traditional views of religion (even if they are unbelievers) who would
> contest this.(Of course I always expect flames anyway :-))
> 
>                            So if God always knows with certainty beforehand 
> that we will do X at time t, then we have no freedom NOT to do X at time t.
> Knowledge by definition is "justified true belief", which means that that 
> which is known is TRUE.  For this reason, human beings cannot restrain
> other humans' freedom by predicting their actions -- humans may have BELIEF
> of future actions, but they have no KNOWLEDGE.  But God does have knowledge.
> So how do we evade the conclusion that God's foreknowledge of all human actions,thoughts, etc. prevents them from being freely done, in other words, human
> beings have no real free will?
> 
>          It seems we have no choice but to say that either human beings really
> *have* no free will, or that God does not exist. If I have not explained 
> myself clearly, I will undoubtedly have a chance later to do so.

	As has been argued before, G-D exists in a timeless environment.
 If so there is no past present or future. For G-D to know what I will do
 is the same as to know what I did, because if there is no time there is no
 did or will do.

			Eliyahu Teitz.