From: radharc@aztec.asu.edu (HARVEY D. HIRST) Subject: Re: What is Free will? Posted-By: azsech (Arizona Secular Humanists SIG Moderator) Reply-To: radharc@aztec.asu.edu (HARVEY D. HIRST) Date: Tue Aug 24 23:13:10 1999
In a previous article, starhawk@aztec.asu.edu (HEATHER L. NEWHOUSE) says:
>omnipotent because an omnipotent god could also create >an irresistible force. However, this is beside the >point of the conversation, which was whether or not >free will could exist if the god was the following >three: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. (for
Before you can answer the question of whether or not free will can exist if God has those three attributes, you'll first have to explain how it is that God can even *have* those attributes. Omniscience and omnipotence are mutally exclusive. In his book _Atheism: The Case Against God_, recommended so many times in the SIG, George H. Smith writes:
There is another irritating problem with the idea of omniscience: it contradicts the attribute of omnipotence. If God knows the future with infallible certainty, he cannot change it -- in which case he cannot be omnipotent. If God can change the future, however, he cannot have infallible knowledge of it prior to its actual happening -- in which case he cannot be omniscient. (This is similar to the issue of in what sense, if any, God can be said to have free will. Does God know his own future decisions? If so, how can those decisions be free? Perhaps God does not make decisions. If so, how can the idea of volition apply to a being with no decisions -- and hence no choices -- to make?)
Harvey
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife's beautiful and his children smart. H.L. Mencken, Minority Report