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Contradictory qualities - omniscience and fee will
August 17, 2010 at 6:28 pm
If God exists, then he is free.
An omniscient being must know exactly what actions he will and will not do in the future.
If one knows that he will do an action, then it is impossible for him not to do it.
Hence, it is impossible for an omniscient being to be free
Therefore, it is impossible for God to exist
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RE: Contradictory qualities - omniscience and fee will
August 17, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Metaphysical free will makes no sense anyway really.
I guess an omniscient God can only be truly omniscient if the universe is assumed to be deterministic.
So if we do that, he knows the future exactly and what he will do and so he can't do anything else. So this makes metaphysical free will impossible for him (and I believe it's impossible in a deterministic universe anyway... and in an indeterministic one it may not be impossible but it completely lacks evidence.... undetermined does not equate to 'free will').
Compatabilist free will is still possible for him however. Since, because he's also (presumably) omnipotent as well as omniscient... he can't be put under duress or legitimately threatened or otherwise coerced into making decisions. So presumably he would have a definition of free will compatible with determinism (a definition that the comptatabilist's espouse) that would apply to him.
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RE: Contradictory qualities - omniscience and fee will
August 17, 2010 at 6:37 pm
If God is all knowing and timeless : he always knows everything. His free choice is enacted in one moment to him, yet sequentially to us.
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RE: Contradictory qualities - omniscience and fee will
August 20, 2010 at 2:34 am
It says nothing about a lot of things that weren't asked for tavarish.