[Serious] Time to embrace Islam!

[brewer]

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm concluding from the definition of 'free will' that a being that can't change its mind doesn't have it.

You are simply being anthropomorphic here. The definition of free will being the ability to pick a choice is specific to creatures, and obviously doesn't apply to an all powerful deity. Choice in our case only results from uncertainty and imperfect knowledge.

If an all powerful deity has no free will, then such a being is unworthy of worship.  Since God is constrained to behave in a certain way, then worshipping God for anything is akin to worshiping water for being wet or worshipping dirt for being dirty.

Boru

[Pat Mustard]

Welcome, NightHawk!

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A deity doesn't change its mind by definition, everything is "figured out" from the first shot. This fallacy is why people think foreknowledge implies coercion.

Saying "not being able to change its mind" is perfectly equivalent to saying "God cannot make 1+1=3". Both are complete logical impossibilities and have nothing to do with omniscience.

It's only a logical impossibility because of the omniscience. And that's why the idea of an omniscient being with free will is incoherent. A being that can't change its mind does not have free will, by definition.

And it's also why omniscidnce and omnipotence are mutually exclusive. If you're all knowing you have no power, because you will know ahead of time every action taken, including your own. In fact omniscience effectively renders a being powerless, as they have only a single path they must travel, no choices.

[R00tKiT]

Are you really that retarded guys? If God knows ahead of time everything he will do, it just means he knows it. When you say he's ((constrained)) you SUPPOSE ALREADY that he WANTS to change his mind, which he doesn't because his omniscience granted him the perfect most beautiful and satisfying future for himself, there is no second guessing or constraints involved, and thus no contradiction.

[Mister Agenda]

I'm concluding from the definition of 'free will' that a being that can't change its mind doesn't have it.

You are simply being anthropomorphic here. The definition of free will being the ability to pick a choice is specific to creatures, and obviously doesn't apply to an all powerful deity. Choice in our case only results from uncertainty and imperfect knowledge.

So we're in agreement that Allah as defined (omniscient) does not and cannot have free will.

[R00tKiT]

[The Grand Nudger]

People also worship nature. Just raw, unfiltered, no extra shit added nature with a capital N. It doesn't have free will either, but it's difficult to see why this diminishes nature as a valid object of worship...and so it's not clear why it would diminish any gods with respect to the same.

On this rock, an absurdly strong argument that water and dirt are also valid objects of worship isn't difficult to come by.

As an aside, it's common for people on the boards to notice that so much of the divine character boils down to a misapprehension of natural forces and circumstances - in this view, people are all, ultimately, worshipping nature. The sense of the numinous signifies actual content in the world, and this content is and has always defined the field of worship.

[R00tKiT]

You are simply being anthropomorphic here. The definition of free will being the ability to pick a choice is specific to creatures, and obviously doesn't apply to an all powerful deity. Choice in our case only results from uncertainty and imperfect knowledge.

So we're in agreement that Allah as defined (omniscient) does not and cannot have free will.

Free will underlies second guessing which is a human attribute. It's simply an empty concept for God. And the fact that he cannot have a vacuous property is not problem.

[brewer]

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

People also worship nature.  Just raw, unfiltered, no extra shit added nature with a capital N.  It doesn't have free will either, but it's difficult to see why this diminishes nature as a valid object of worship...and so it's not clear why it would diminish any gods with respect to the same.

On this rock, an absurdly strong argument that water and dirt are also valid objects of worship isn't difficult to come by.

As an aside, it's common for people on the boards to notice that so much of the divine character boils down to a misapprehension of natural forces and circumstances - in this view, people are all, ultimately, worshipping nature.  The sense of the numinous at least signifies actual content in the world, and this content is and has always defined the field of worship.

My objection isn't what is a valid object of worship, but the reason worship is paid.  People worship Allah to get into Paradise.  If Allah has no free will (which is problematic for the sobriquet 'The Merciful'), then worshiping Allah for an afterlife reward is no different than worshipping water for the same reason.

Boru