@prothero,
prothero;167833 wrote:I predicted my wife would have an english muffin and tea for breakfast this morning. She did. I do not claim she did not make this decision using her "free will". That of course is one thing.
I predict I can tell you precisely what my wife, is thinking, feeling, her actions at every moment for her entire lifetime. That is something else entirely, isnt it. They would be having me committed to the looney bin.
Prediction and predetermined are two different things, yes??
I submit though that the future does not yet exist, that there are elements of unpredictablity in the world, and that even "god" does not have perfect knowledge of the "future". One can construct a logical argument for omniscience but that is not the way the world "really" is.
Even if the future does not exist, one can argue that true statements about the future exist now. "It will rain tomorrow" is a true statement today about an event tomorrow, just in case it rains tomorrow.
If God existed, his omniscience might consist in knowing the truth value of all future contingent propositions. He would know, in advance, everything that you will ever do.
The question, though, is, why should this knowledge entail your lack of freedom? It's a
non sequitur. God's knowledge, by itself, can't force you to do anything. Rather, quite the opposite: Your free acts force God to know what you do (force in the sense that God has infallible foreknowledge and therefore is "forced" to know what you will do.)
