Theists: How can predetermined fate and free will coexist?

[LadyForCamus]

Wtf how can you hold contradicting views simultaneously so easily CL

I'm done here then..

I really don't know what you are referring to, Pool.

I think the crux of the contradiction, at least for me, is god's supposed omnipotence. If god, the decision maker in charge of existence itself, is an all-powerful being, that means he had literally an infinite number of potential scenarios for creation available to him. I mean...he could have made an earth full of green and purple, deaf-mute fraggles who all go to heaven in the end if he wanted to. Right? He is completely in charge, and wholly unrestricted in his power and potential. Yes?

So...if an all-powerful being, who has both limitless choices for potential worlds (and their subsequent outcomes) AND the power to see those outcomes beforehand (including every decision made by every living being born to that world), chooses one particular world from the many, than it was HIS choice; HIS free will. Not ours. He sealed our fates with his ultimate decision. We never had any control to begin with, because he saw what would happen and he made it so anyway.

Hopefully this clarifies the issue rather than further confusing it, lol. [emoji39]

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Let's say someone offers my kid a choice between Cake or Baked beans. I know with as close to 100% certainty as possible, she's going to choose the Cake. My knowledge of her future choice in cake in no way affects her freedom to choose.

So, hypothetically, if I have an omnipotent level of knowledge about her instead, I'd likely know every choice she were about to make. Again, my knowledge of her future choices wouldn't have anything to do with her choosing. Her free will would remain perfectly in tact.

I've got complaints, but I don't see a problem here.

BUT...if you were able to choose before your daughter was even conceived, whether she was going to be a person who prefers cake to baked beans or the other way around, and YOU CHOSE to create a daughter who will always prefer cake, than it's you who is exercising free will. Not her. She has no choice real choice in that scenario. It's an illusion of choice.

What's getting missed here is that god made a decision, knowing the consequences before hand. He isn't just an innocent bystander who just happens to be able to see into the future.