I haven't read all of the posts in here so sorry if I'm bringing up something that's already been covered, but the argument that God's omniscience does not affect our free will just does not make any sense to me. Here's something I posted on a Christian forum and never got a what I felt was a satisfactory answer:
God created the Universe and also knew exactly how everything would play out from the beginning until the end of time. That's why the "God is just an all knowing observer," idea doesn't fly with me. If he created the Universe and also knows how I will react in everything that I do, how is that different from someone who writes a play and then watches the play performed? Or, say a character in a play has a decision to make; does the character have the free will to do anything other than what was assigned for him to do by the playwright? No, he doesn't because if he does do anything other than what was written by the playwright, it isn't the same play. Man's free will and God's omniscience would have to be the same way, I would think. I cannot do anything unexpected of me by God for if I do I cannot be living in a Universe created by God.
Unless your argument is that God did not obtain the ability of omniscience until after he created the Universe, which in my opinion would be a really astounding claim, I just find it utterly impossible for man's free will and God's omniscience to co-exist.
Where is the error in my reasoning here? |