Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Share your knowledge. Make a difference.

Is God Omniscient ? If so, do we have free will?

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 6 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #483 in People, #6811 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

An exploration into the philosophy of religion

 

If God exists, He is all knowing.
That means that in advance he knows what we will do.
If He knew yesterday that today I will do the laundry - am I free to NOT do the laundry today?

There is a conflict between our assumption that we have free will, and God's all knowing nature (as seen by Christian and Muslim theologians).

So, what do you think... is God all knowing? 

Does God know all, everything, the future, the past, your innermost thoughts?

Loading Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

Yes, of course. Being omniscient is one of the divine attributes of God

saurab says:

There are different levels of knowing. Cosmic knowledge, for instance has got to be distinguished from knowledge of whether a particular vegetable is available in a particular super market in a city. Phenomena of a rather trivial nature are not worth being 'scient' about if there is the much vaster domain of non-trivial knowledge to be aware of. Obviously, though you can know the number of cars parked in a garage as you walk past it during the early morning stroll, it makes no sense to count them, just because one can. In a similar way, omniscience does not necessitate one to know matters that to someone may be very significant but to oneself may be trivial. That is one point. The other point is that since the life force is undivided and flows everywhere, and is also intelligent in itself, therefore all is known, and all is knowable, including a person's innermost thoughts, since all is connected in the web of life.

futurmajic says:

Since there is no such thing as time or space, ?it is only something we perceive in a physical world?, all is known, even to us at the deepest levels.

TwoBrightHeads says:

Yes and No. He has a system in place already. He can be omniscient if he wants to but can also choose not to. Make sense? No?

big bright head

PositiveChristian says:

Of course God is omniscient. I He were not He wouldn't be God.

sirkeystone says:

Omniscience is an attribute, but "he" has left us with choices, and based on our own choices and our primal instinct to survive, we have over time created the world we live in. Besides, in my belief system, "his" all-knowing covers the fact that "he" can see the entire time-line at once, "he" can transend all the dimensions at once, so while we make our choices, "he" knows what we will do before we do it.

No, who can be all-knowing?

The_Homeopath says:

I don't think "all-knowing" really has any meaning to our limited minds.

kephrira says:

I don't think an all-knowing and all-powerful god would have made such a flawed world. But then again maybe there are reason that I don't know. Or maybe God is an all-knowing and all-powerful sadist.

 
1 of 2 pages
 

Logical fatalism 

a definition

The subject of this lens is really fatalism: is our future set?

Logical fatalism is the idea that because we can say something about tomorrow that might turn out to be true, the future is already determined today.

Theological Fatalism 

Theological fatalism is like logical fatalism, with a twist. Instead of just anybody being able to say anything, and someone might turn out to be right - it's God that says something.

Theological fatalism is the idea that an All knowing omniscient God knows today what will happen tomorrow - and so the future is set. Because the future is determined in advance, we as individuals can't do anything about it.

The Divine Attributes... Who or What is God? 

More about the omniscience of God 

God Knows.....
God knows all about your troubles. G...Published by unknown on Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:30:27 -0700 Blog :...
A Prayer Vigil
We may not understand it; we may not understand why sometimes we pray and get answers and other time...
Comment on Why They Hate Her by Donald R. McClarey
God knows I get enough google hits on those very topics.) 4. No, no one seems to be able to even fin...
Palin Rumors
No, no one seems to be able to even find swimsuit pictures of her from her beauty queen days; God kn...
Phobia
hey, for the 20 people whom I have surveyed, these are my answers: my fav colour is blue (not purple...
powered by FeedMySearch

A philosophy lens 

Usually my lenses are introductions into topics. This lens is my summary of the hardest topic we are covering in our philosophy of religion class at Leiden University. The class is meant for people who have already taken several philosophy classes, so while it's still a first year college class - it's also pretty advanced.

So: If you don't understand, don't worry: I made this lens precisely because I didn't understand the topic just yet. Philosophy is meant to make you ponder and think - that means confronting stuff you didn't understand at first.

I try to keep things as simple as possible in this lens, but I can't guarantee that everybody can understand what I'm talking about. Do ask any questions you might have in the comments. I will try and answer them.

The Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction (Fundamentals of Philosophy) 

by Linda Zagzebski

The Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction (Fundamentals of Philosophy)

Amazon Price: $28.75 (as of 09/06/2008)

This is the book that started me on this lens. We read it in our 'philosophy of religion' class at Leiden University - and this subject is one of the ones Linda Zagzebski tackles very well.

Philosophy books are never easy, this one isn't either. Still, it is very interesting.

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

God knows us - solution no.1 

Middle Knowledge / Molinism

One solution is that God is all knowing to such an extent that He knows what I will do, because he knows me so well. So although I do have free will, that doesn't stop him from knowing what I will do.

This leaves my laundry up to the certainty that I will be doing them - even if I didn't know I would in advance. It means that it has been determined in advance what I will do - and that means my free will is effectively an illusion.

God outside of time - solution no.2 

Boethian Solution (Boethius and Acquinas)

I started out writing that the problem is that God knows in advance what we will be doing - him being omniscient and everything.

But some philosophers say: God doesn't know in advance, because he isn't in time. He just knows - looking at our path from outside of time. He sees where we were and where we are going all in one glance - as if from a mountain top.

In philosophy every solution creates its own problems. In this case:

  • If God is outside of time, can He interfere with us at a certain time?

  • If God is outside of time, does he know what time it is?

    God gives up some omniscience so we can have free will - solution no. 3 

    I like this solution, but I do think it's a bit strange.

    Some modern theologians say that God is in time, just like us. And because He wants us to have free will, God freely gave up his omniscience so that we could have free will.

    This leaves God in the position to have a relationship to each of us, answer prayers, and act WITHIN TIME.

    Omniscient God? Discussed online 

    A Changing Omniscient God? Balderdash!!
    I've heard several people say that if God changes His mind then He isn't God as we normally understand a God to be. That is, He can't be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent etc. They especially focus in on omniscient. ...
    Godly Aliens
    It's as ill-defined as "god." What are we talking about here? An omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient god? A deistic sort of god? A personal god? A semi-powerful god? An omnipresent god? It's not really defined. ...
    In response to: Fembush -- Scary stuff on Palin.
    How come god didn't know from the get-go that animal sacrifices weren't going to cut it for him? Why didn't an omniscient being just put JC in the garden, if that was what it would take to reach the people? Anyway, "god" didn't make ...
    Comment on CATHOLIC WORKER HOUSE SUPPORTS WOMAN PRIEST by Mary O
    (Remember in His omniscience, God could have chosen both Aaron and Miriam to be made priests, thus making female priests commonplace to the Jews.) I don't know why God chose this. But I do firmly believe that neither I, nor anyone, ...

    And if God is alknowing, does that mean we don't have free will? 

    If God is alknowing, does that mean our actions are determined in advance and we don't have free will?

    Loading Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

    Yes, our free will is an illusion.

    spirituality says:

    I agree with Whiteoak that there are consequences for our actions - whether one believes in God or not. In theosophy, Buddhism and Hinduism this is called: Karma. Whether that impacts our free will is debatable and goes beyond the subject of this lens. Maybe something for a future lens?

    WhiteOak50 says:

    But is "free will" really free when there are consequences?
    We have the free will to do what we want, but if we do something against the grain (so to speak) there are consequences of the action.

    No, God knows what we will be doing. We still have free will.

    futurmajic says:

    Before saying there isn't a god out there "God" must first be defined. And then remember, there "is" something out there. We are here for free will. The difference between here and where we truly are, is great. Don't veiw God or even our true selves as someone next door, it is more like in a different universe.

    PositiveChristian says:

    The omniscience verses freewill argument seems very silly to me. Why should my freewill stop God from knowing what I will do? It is possible to know about something without controlling it. God's omniscience and our freewill are perfectly compatible.

    a thought says:

    If you've seen a movie before, just cuz you know what happens next doesn't mean you're controlling the action.

    The_Homeopath says:

    We have free will, even if *something* already knew the *future*, it wouldn't matter how we came to our choices because they would still be ours.

    jacquelinestone says:

    We have free will AND God is all-knowing. The problem is in thinking of the source of all that is in terms of human attributes. We are, all is, part of God, the One field of life.

    spirituality says:

    Personally I believe we do have free will - so probably there isn't a God out there.

     
     
    1 of 1 page
     

    So - free will or not? 

    This is for those of you who don't want to type into the duel boxes.

    Loading poll. Please Wait...

    More philosophy of religion links 

    Metaphysics Philosophy > Modern Theosophy
    A selection of articles on metaphysics, by authors like H.P. Blavatsky, W.Q. Judge and many others.
    Buddhist Philosophy
    Articles on Sunyata. The terms Sunyata (or Shunyata), void and emptiness are synonyms in Buddhist philosophy. They are ways of expressing the sense that all we see, feel and observe is relative, in fact non-essential and not self-sustaining.

    Terminology 

    I have tried to keep philosophical terminology to a minimum. Still, I have to learn it, so here are the terms I feel are necessary for me to talk about this subject at the level expected at university.

    Counter-factuals of freedom
    The premise that in a certain circumstance each being will freely do what God knows they would do. If something else were to be done by a being - God would have known that too (counterfactually true).
    God choose to create that creation in which the total result of laws of nature plus choices of beings is the best of all possible creations. That must be the creation we are in - apparently God cannot choose a better creation than the one we are in. Free will combines with evil directly, apparently (if there is a loving, all powerful God in the first place).
    [Zagzebski, p. 116]

    Fatalism versus Determinism 

    Fatalism is the idea that it doesn't matter what we do, what's meant to happen will happen anyhow.

    Determinism is the idea that there is no freedom from the law of cause and effect: the future is determined by the past and the present or other causes (like God or Gods).

    Fatalism is a common attitude amongst those who don't feel they can influence their life. It's a case of self-fulfilling prophecy: if we don't think we can change our lives, our lives are obviously not going to change.

    Determinism can easily become fatalism. If you think that drinking problems are caused by genes, for instance, you are more likely to just give up trying to fight alcoholism.

    It's another story if determinism includes the choices we make, and the impact those choices have on our options. After all: working hard leads to results - there is a law to that as well.

    Philosophy of Religion Books 

    Altruism & Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy & Religion in Dialogue

    Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

    Amazon Price: $72.60 (as of 09/06/2008)

    Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide

    Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

    Amazon Price: $75.00 (as of 09/06/2008)

    Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction

    Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

    Amazon Price: $54.95 (as of 09/06/2008)

    Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction

    Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

    Amazon Price: $19.75 (as of 09/06/2008)

    Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

    Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

    Amazon Price: $46.75 (as of 09/06/2008)

    On the gender of God 

    Each of the arguments in this lens could equally well be made for a female or impersonal God. Since the major world religions have a male God, that's the gender I use most in this lens.

    Did this lens make you think about the nature of GOD? 

    Tell me what you thought of this lens. Too hard? Too simple? Did it make you think about the nature of God - (if you believe in a personal God at all, that is)?

    futurmajic

    Yes. If there was a God who controled everything, all would then be Gods life, of which we are a part and we are all.

    Posted August 13, 2008

    PositiveChristian

    An excellent lens highlighting a very common but, in my opinion, flawed argument. God's omniscience and our freewill has never been a problem to me. Why should the two not be compatible?

    Posted August 06, 2008

    spirituality

    Ah, now I get your point. I changed the 'no' answer a bit, so you would have felt included :)

    Glad to see this got you pondering - that's the whole point. ;)

    Posted May 22, 2008

    SusanVillasLewis

    Maybe. But to put it in that category still implies that I think there's some connection between God's omniscience (which isn't the same as just knowing me well) and free will. God's knowledge of my choice of A doesn't deny me the choice of B. These aren't compatible in terms of issues. (And yes, my head is starting to hurt now from pondering this. :-) I'm now going to exercise my free will to watch cartoons. :-)

    Posted May 21, 2008

    spirituality

    Hi Susan,

    Actually - I don't see why you couldn't fit your opinion in the 'No, God knows what we will be doing, but that's because he knows us so well. We still have free will.' category. But I'm glad you found a way to voice your opinion anyhow.

    I'm going to make sure a lot of responses of people get shown (not just the default 5), so voices like yours don't get lost.

    Posted May 19, 2008

    SusanVillasLewis

    Great job and a great topic. But I didn't feel I could participate in the duels because your basic assertion seems flawed. What does God's omniscience have to do with free will? Knowledge of something doesn't automatically imply manipulation, which would be necessary for there to be a lack of free will. The free-will issue often comes up in churches related to predestination, which has to do with God choosing his children (those he foreknew), thus implying no free will on our part. But I've never heard to seen it paired with God's general knowledge in this way. Just because he knows I'm going to have coffee every morning doesn't mean he dictated that I would. Knowledge and action aren't the same thing, and action would be required for me to lose my free will.

    Posted May 19, 2008

    jacquelinestone

    You have a talent for stimulating spiritual discussion -- and that's a good thing!
    Congratulations! This lens is number 200 in Empowerment & Enlightenment. Just as I did for #100. I will put a feature on you on all of my lenses and blogs for a week.

    Posted May 18, 2008

    WhiteOak50

    One of the things about your lens that is so interesting is: you make people think, especially here lately. Thanks for all that you offer to the group!

    Posted May 18, 2008

    More religion and spirituality lenses 

    For more religion resources and spiritual inspiration, see my website: http://www.katinkahesselink.net/

    Thanks for all your support!

    A big thank you to all of you who've supported my online work by:

    X
    spirituality

    About spirituality

    I'm a webmaster and student of religion and spirituality. See my website on religion and spirituality: www.katinkahesselink.net
    Join my fanclub if you want to be kept updated on new (spiritual) lenses I make. I have lenses on The Ultimate Questions, Spiritual teachers and a few non-spiritual topics, including A few nerdy, squidoy topics.

    spirituality's Pages

    See all of spirituality's pages

    X

    Gold Star

    This is a certified gold star lens, which means it's the best of its kind on Squidoo (or shows some serious potential for getting there!)

    Read more about gold stars »

    X

    spirituality is a Giant Squid!

    Giants are distinguished by their exceptional skill for making top-notch lenses, and lots of them. Whenever you land on a Giant Squid's lens, you know the person behind it is passionate about the topic and is hard at work making the lens worthy of your time and attention.

    Learn more about what it takes to be a Giant »