Theists: How can predetermined fate and free will coexist?

[robvalue]

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There seems to be some confusion regarding my scenario.

I'm addressing the claim put forward by many theists that it is possible for a being to know our future before it happens, while we retain free will.

So I'm making the assumption that it's possible to have knowledge of the future. The future. Different timelines have been mentioned. If God only knows one possible eventuality in advance, then he does not know the future. He only knows one possibility. And that's not difficult. So I'm disallowing mutliple timelines for this thought experiment, because it makes the theistic claim meaningless in the first place. It makes precognition meaningless. (If someone wants to challenge that, feel free.)

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So to make it simpler, God shows up in front of you, and tells you that in the next 10 seconds, you're going to walk slowly towards and then through the red door. He has seen it already, and he knows it to be true. [1] Can you ignore him and instead walk towards and through the blue door in the next 10 seconds? Or are you compelled to obey, and to do as he has predicted? [2]

If you're a theist and you don't claim that God can see our future beforehand, then you have nothing to address here. There is no contradiction, and free will is coherent. God cannot truthfully make such a proclamation, and so you can ignore him; at least partially.

Some people still seem to treat the future as if it's constantly changing. Precognition is meaningless if that is the case. God can't know the future if he has to wait and see what happens up until that point before finally knowing what will actually happen. That's simply called observing. Go watch the Minority Report, where the only people who can change the future are the police, for some reason.

1) Like I asked before: Does he know that I will choose to do this? Is my CHOICE part of what he knows? As God, that seems to be within his power to know.

The question of whether you have choice or not is what is up for debate here. If you simply state that you still have choice, even when he knows your future, then you are begging the question. I'm asking a theist who believes in this to explain how there is any possible choice that can be made.

He knows you will do it, as claimed by many theists. (You appear to have claimed this before.) Whether or not you have any geniune choice to make is what is up for grabs.

He knows the outcome. I don't understand what relevance it is how the outcome is achieved, be it an apparent "choice" or otherwise. There is only one thing that can happen, eventually.

2) If he infallibly KNOWS that I will CHOOSE to walk through the red door in that moment, then I will absolutely and definitely CHOOSE to walk through that red door. I don't see the problem that creates for the reality of the choice?

I'm asking if you can instead choose to walk through the blue door. Can you do this? If not, and you must "choose" to go through the red door, then what choice is it? You have only one option, which you must choose. How is that a choice?

If he infallibly KNOWS that I will NOT CHOOSE to walk through the red door, but I will walk through it anyway, then I will absolutely and definitely walk through the red door without having chosen it.

Uhm.... I don't understand. He knows you won't walk through the red door, but you will walk through it without having chosen it? I have no idea what this means. What do you mean you haven't chosen it? How else did it happen?

So you have to be specific about the content of the precognition. Does it include the reality of choosing the red door or not?

The whole question here is whether there are any meaningful choices to made, given that God has precogntion. As you're the theist, you can define precognition any way you want. If you can demonstrate that God knows what I will do yet I still have a meaningful choice, then you'll have defeated my objections. If you're happy for simply following one course of action even though there are no other possible ones to be called a "choice", then we're only arguing semantics. I don't see the difference between this and a robot or even a rock "choosing" to do things. We have (at least the illusion of) consciousness and the sense of control; it doesn't mean we are really making any meaingful choices at all.

If you want to assume from the start that I do have meaningful choices to make, then I'd like to know how God can know, in advance, what I will choose. I don't mean how is he powerful enough, but I mean how can the knowledge be available.

I'm only trying to mimic theistic ideas of precognition. To me, the idea is ludicrous.