chaz wyman wrote:
God creates us all as individuals. With each act of creation he modifies a model of his own image. He knows all. As he creates you he knows what will be the events of each day of your life and how you will respond to those challenges and opportunities. This he knows even before you are born. That is what omniscience is. So he knows with each creation who will die a sinner and who will die a saint. In each act of creation he will know who will be saved. Anything less will diminish God. Anything less than that is a denial of omniscience. Thus there is no free-will. God' omniscience demands that each creation is an act of pre-determination. This is the doctrine of Calvin. Omniscience has to entail this knowledge. God is not stupid.
You seem to think that free will means you're able to change the future.
Obviously. But I change the future every day - don't you?
I even change the future and think free-will is an illusion.
But you are missing the point.
I am not advocating either position - I am simply pointing the the confusion in Christian ideology which Calvin and many others has noted before me.
You can also define free will as the ability to make a choice. Call it a chemical process in your brain, if you will. It doesn't matter if someone else already knows what you're going to choose, your own perspective is only what counts. Even if the world is deterministic you can still make choices.
But as God knows everything - he has already designed you to make those choices.
I already know you're not going to surrender to Khalid and convert to Islam. I also know that Khalid is not going to become an atheist after the discussions on this forum.
The first is true, the second may not be. But there is not doubt that our paths having crossed will determine a change in us of a sort - a change that an omnipotent God will have know since the beginning of time.
It's determined by the current state of the universe.
Of course.
Does that mean you don't have the choice?
Choice is where we each are the agents of causality. Not free- but deterministic.