The JWs once taught that god's ability to see the future could be turned on or off. They likened it to a very strong man, who has muscles capable of lifting great weight, but which he did not always use for that purpose. It was one of the things that chipped away at my belief because it was so crazy, yet I wanted to believe that it made sense.
The thing is, you can use the Bible to show that the future is not set and our fates are in our own hands, but that god can predict future events. Seeing as he is able to do pretty much anything he wants, is it so surprising when he says "everyone will be drowned in a flood" and exactly that happens? It's just his way of showing that if he says something will happen, you know he can make it happen. It has nothing to do with him checking the Highlight Reel of the Future.
The problem with this is that his actions may interfere with free will. Take the case of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Did god/Jesus know that Judas would eventually betray him when he chose him? If so, then he selected a pretty awful person as a disciple (and apparently his teachings and miracles were unable to convince him of the folly of his actions!). If not, then there is the possibility that god selected a good man to follow him, then turned him evil in order to carry out a part of his plan, which seems horribly unjust. I could never reconcile that problem.
The thing is, you can use the Bible to show that the future is not set and our fates are in our own hands, but that god can predict future events. Seeing as he is able to do pretty much anything he wants, is it so surprising when he says "everyone will be drowned in a flood" and exactly that happens? It's just his way of showing that if he says something will happen, you know he can make it happen. It has nothing to do with him checking the Highlight Reel of the Future.
The problem with this is that his actions may interfere with free will. Take the case of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Did god/Jesus know that Judas would eventually betray him when he chose him? If so, then he selected a pretty awful person as a disciple (and apparently his teachings and miracles were unable to convince him of the folly of his actions!). If not, then there is the possibility that god selected a good man to follow him, then turned him evil in order to carry out a part of his plan, which seems horribly unjust. I could never reconcile that problem.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
