[extropy-chat] The omniscience of God and the free will of Man

[Spike]

>The omniscience of God and the free will of Man
> 
> --- Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <gpmap at runbox.com> wrote:
> > ...two opposite concepts in religious thinking: the
> > omniscience of God and the free will of Man. Is it possible 
> > to have a universe sporting free-will and a God? 

The logical tension between man's free will and god's
complete foreknowledge is a concept that theology students
stumble on in their training.  Some attempt a sloppy
middle ground interpretation: god knows all, yet we do
not, so we *appear* to have free will, etc.

Yet when followed to its logical ends, if an omniscient
deity really knows all, then everything we do here is
on a track with no real controls, so everything is in
that sense meaningless.  If one decides otherwise, then
chaos theory, butterfly effect, suggests that no deity
could possibly know the future in detail.

Calvin was unwilling to give up the notion of god's
complete and universal omniscience from beginning to
end, and so concluded that we are indeed mere automatons,
predestined in every word and action.  Most modern 
theologians, when faced with the same question,
are unwilling to go that route, and are forced to
conclude that even god does not really know *everything*
about the future, but can make reasonable forecasts,
which can fall into several different categories.

Example: I can tell you where I will be and with whom
five months from now: on 12 May 2004 at 0915 I will
be with in a building on Calaveras Blvd with the
attractive young Miss Jordan.  She will be polishing 
my teeth, as she has done about every 6 months 
for the past 10 years.  This is an example of a detailed 
prophecy containing both time and place, which would 
have been correct in about 17 of the last 20 times it 
was made.

Theology students break down prophecy into the self-fulfilling,
the self-defeating, the educated guesses, the conclusions
to the natural order, etc.

Theology students do not have enough to do.

spike