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Interesting fact to consider about free will as it relates to philosophy and religion: A god can have free will and predict the future, but he (or she or it) ca

Interesting fact to consider about free will as it relates to philosophy and religion: A god can have free will and predict the future, but he (or she or it) can't do both. If you can predict exactly what will happen at any point in time, you don't have the ability to change it. And absolute free will prevents you from predicting the future.

jgallag8 12y ago
Just like to point out that this has been debated much over many, many years, and that this view is not the consensus (there being no consensus). See the following for a good summary of a slightly stronger version of the claim (omniscience implies that there is no free will for anyone), as well as various objections: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/
alok-g 12y ago
Why cannot God have free will and "dictate" (and thereby predict) the future? (The situation becomes different when multiple entities possess free will.)
- MisterBastahrd 12y ago
  Depends on your definition of God. If it includes perfect and omniscient, then that being can't make any decisions. They've already been made for him / her. That god is an automaton.
  - KMag 12y ago
    Or alternatively, s/he has "already" made all decisions outside of time/at the moment time began. From this point of view, any being that is both omniscient and omnipotent cannot change his/her mind, if said being changes over time, this implies s/he will make decisions now based on how s/he will feel about things later, after taking her/his own evolution into account. I'm sure we're not saying anything that hasn't been said literally millions of times before half-drunk at countless frat parties.
    - MisterBastahrd 12y ago
      Well of course. Who'd want to be sober at a frat party? :)
    - fennecfoxen 12y ago
      > From this point of view, any being that is both omniscient and omnipotent cannot change his/her mind, if said being changes over time, this implies s/he will make decisions now based on how s/he will feel about things later, after taking her/his own evolution into account. You see, the problem is that people think of the evolution of an omniscient deity as a strict linear progression from cause to effect, but actually it's more like a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff. :P

jgallag8 12y ago

Just like to point out that this has been debated much over many, many years, and that this view is not the consensus (there being no consensus). See the following for a good summary of a slightly stronger version of the claim (omniscience implies that there is no free will for anyone), as well as various objections: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/

alok-g 12y ago

Why cannot God have free will and "dictate" (and thereby predict) the future? (The situation becomes different when multiple entities possess free will.)

MisterBastahrd 12y ago
Depends on your definition of God. If it includes perfect and omniscient, then that being can't make any decisions. They've already been made for him / her. That god is an automaton.
- KMag 12y ago
  Or alternatively, s/he has "already" made all decisions outside of time/at the moment time began. From this point of view, any being that is both omniscient and omnipotent cannot change his/her mind, if said being changes over time, this implies s/he will make decisions now based on how s/he will feel about things later, after taking her/his own evolution into account. I'm sure we're not saying anything that hasn't been said literally millions of times before half-drunk at countless frat parties.
  - MisterBastahrd 12y ago
    Well of course. Who'd want to be sober at a frat party? :)
  - fennecfoxen 12y ago
    > From this point of view, any being that is both omniscient and omnipotent cannot change his/her mind, if said being changes over time, this implies s/he will make decisions now based on how s/he will feel about things later, after taking her/his own evolution into account. You see, the problem is that people think of the evolution of an omniscient deity as a strict linear progression from cause to effect, but actually it's more like a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff. :P