eternal god & free will
- Created by: Megan Rose McHugh
- Created on: 02-05-13 20:10
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- ETERNAL GOD + FREE WILL
- if god knows our choices we are not free; we cannot choose another action as God cannot be mistaken for he is perfect
- view that our choices are contingent is false- instead they are necessary meaning our future is set
- In response to the criticism: Boethius- god does not know the future, he simply knows everything. he knows what is true but is unaware of which time/place in history events take place
- god sees everything simultaneously
- Analogy of the Road: when walking along a road we are unaware of who is behind us however someone who sees the whole road from a height is able to see everyone travelling the path. walker is making choices and the person looking down (god) can see what choices we will make
- this knowledge is not causal thus humans have free will
- Augustine: god simply knows our choices
- analogy adopted by Aquinas (Summa Theologiae)
- Anthony Kenny: god knowing all time is incoherent as it proposes that all time is happening within the same moment: uses example of him typing his paper (The God of Philosophers) occurring at the same time as the great fire of Rome
- Paul Helm: we should abandon the idea that eternity involves events being simultaneously present to god
- god is timeless- what humans are doing is not taking place at the same time anything god is doing. suggests god cannot have temporal relations to any of his creation
- BUT HOW CAN HE BE PERSONAL?
- god is timeless- what humans are doing is not taking place at the same time anything god is doing. suggests god cannot have temporal relations to any of his creation
- Paul Helm: we should abandon the idea that eternity involves events being simultaneously present to god
- if god knows our choices we are not free; we cannot choose another action as God cannot be mistaken for he is perfect
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