God's omniscience, like Mr. White's device, removes the ability to do otherwise but that doesn't necessarily negate free will.
Free will is defined as the ability to choose ANY of the available possibilities available. It is not merely the existence of the possibilities.
IF a god KNEW 500 years before I was alive - everything that was going to happen - then - only one thing CAN happen - that which the god already knows.
So - 5000 years later - when A human makes a choice - is can ONLY choose the ONE THING the god knows will happen - and cannot have the ability to choose any other - or the god would NOT BE Omniscient. Since Humans can ONLY make choices when they actually exist - and since ONLY one can actually be allowed to be chosen - there would NOT BE free will - because there is NO free choice.
Of course - this speaks to a greater problem - since the god is in the same position as the human - it can ONLY DO what it already knows it will do - and cannot change its mind as well - so I cannot be almighty.
Today - I have done something an ALL KNOWING god cannot do - I have posted a message to this group - a message about which I had NO knowledge I would do 10 years ago. IT is a power of Humans - that gods cannot have. An all knowing god cannot do something it had NO PRIOR knowledge of.
So - the god cannot be almighty - and the claim of free will cannot be true with an Omniscient god
THE reason why humans have free will - is because there are NO gods - omniscient or otherwise -
Free will is defined as the ability to choose ANY of the available possibilities available. It is not merely the existence of the possibilities.
IF a god KNEW 500 years before I was alive - everything that was going to happen - then - only one thing CAN happen - that which the god already knows.
So - 5000 years later - when A human makes a choice - is can ONLY choose the ONE THING the god knows will happen - and cannot have the ability to choose any other - or the god would NOT BE Omniscient. Since Humans can ONLY make choices when they actually exist - and since ONLY one can actually be allowed to be chosen - there would NOT BE free will - because there is NO free choice.
Of course - this speaks to a greater problem - since the god is in the same position as the human - it can ONLY DO what it already knows it will do - and cannot change its mind as well - so I cannot be almighty.
Today - I have done something an ALL KNOWING god cannot do - I have posted a message to this group - a message about which I had NO knowledge I would do 10 years ago. IT is a power of Humans - that gods cannot have. An all knowing god cannot do something it had NO PRIOR knowledge of.
So - the god cannot be almighty - and the claim of free will cannot be true with an Omniscient god
THE reason why humans have free will - is because there are NO gods - omniscient or otherwise -
