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Position:Home>Philosophy> If God determines every event real or imaginary....?Question: If God determines every event real or imaginary!.!.!.!.!? !.!.!.how can there be "free will!." Someone forgot to explain to someone that determined means "to cause, affect, or control; fix or decide causally!." I know it has other meanings, but determinism doesn't mean I know your choice but you still get to make it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm not sure how to tackle this issue!. There may seem to be a contradiction here between free will and destiny!. I think that they are not contradictory, the answer is full knowledge!. God has full knowledge of all things happening in the past, present and future!. From a scientific stand point, Someone who is not subject to time (i!.e!. He lives outside our time-space universe) with the ability to see things, can see all events happening concurrently!. God has a knowledge of what you are going to do and not to do, and he, therefore, says that you will be doing things you intended to do before you do them!. Is this contradictory to free will!? Let me give you an example!. If, for some reason, I can see in the future, and I saw that you will go in a trip to somewhere!. Then I came to tell you that you will be going in trip before you make that decision!. You may feel constrained by my revelations that you have no other choice but going, which is or was your real choice!. My revelation makes your free-will looks like predetermination (this under the assumption that you will in all cases do exactly as I foretold, otherwise I will be proven ignorant, which is contradictory with our first assumption of full knowledge)!. Having said all that, this does not rule out that a big part of our decision are most of the time dictated by external contraints and environment rather than by our real free will!. When you wake up in the morning to go to school or work, do you do that because that is what you really want or because you have no other choice, since if you don't go, you will be out of school or work!? These environmental contraints represent a complex system dictating actions to people!. Reactions of people to these constraints transform into additional contrainsts into the system!. As long as people only 'react' to external constraints, the system tends toward some kind of predictable path and equilibrium!. An action that is not justified by constraints but rather by true free will may threaten the stability of the system and make it evolve toward a certain outcome!. That outcome could very well be what was written in a book called 'Destiny'!. It is not because a system is so complex and complicated to comprehend or forecast that is necessary random!. Our ability to analyze complex systems based on cause and effect is limited, especially if that system has unlimited number of variables and follow a chaos theory!. We cannot predict the movement of the system because our intellect does not enable us to do so!. But in no case that this means the system is random!. What was your question again!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Check into Deism!. Many of the Founders, like Jefferson, were deists!. They believe that after God created the world he did nothing else either malevolent or benevolent!. It is strictly hands off!. People who claim both beliefs, that God has his hands in everything, and that we have free will, either don't see the contradiction, or they have a theological rationalization that covers both!.Www@QuestionHome@Com if your really defending the ENGLISH LANGUAGE then post it in the culture sectionWww@QuestionHome@Com Free will is something that God want us to have, He did not want to force us to love him he wanted us to choose to love him!. God BlessWww@QuestionHome@Com When people imagine life as occurring on a time line past, present, and future are considered to have existence in God Eyes!. This is not true!. The only thing we "do" in life is choose and make decisions in life!. "Action" is only automatic response to choice that is dictated by God based on available opportunities as a result of that choice!. Our responses are conditioned, not spontaneous, and are how We chose to respond!. At any moment we can choose to be forgiving, kind, loving, considerate, respectful, compassionate, peaceful to everyone and everything without exception including to oneself, rather than resentful, hateful, selfish, rude, violent, vengeful, angry, even when we feel its deserved!. All our lives we have been taught to choose the right choice over the wrong choice, or the good over the bad!. The problem is we don't know what the right and good choices from the wrong and bad ones, or why else would there be bad and wrong choices to make!? "Lord forgive them, fore they not know what they do!." Again we have the option to choose to be forgiving, kind, loving, considerate, respectful, compassionate, peaceful to everyone and everything without exception including to oneself, rather than resentful, hateful, selfish, rude, violent, vengeful, angry, even when we feel its deserved!. One doesn't have to be religious to understand or even choice that!. So we can say life is like a game played in the dark without knowing the rules before playing, as Dr!. Hawkins would say!. True "free will" is deciding to completely surrender ones life to God with no regard for oneself rather than "going it alone!." When will we make that choice!? It is up to us!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |