Omniscience - Divine Knowledge and Free Will

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  • Created by: mariam26
  • Created on: 22-03-21 14:04
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  • Omniscience, Time and Free Will
    • Boethius
      • Believed that God is not constrained by time
        • God exists in all moments - Past, Present and Future occur simultaneously
          • For Example: God can see someone being born, getting married and dying at the same time
      • God does not know everything
        • He doesn't know what our actions will be and can therefore judge us fairly
      • Roman aristocrat, philosopher and commentator on Aristotle in the Middle Ages
    • Anselm
      • Anselm developed Boethius' concept of God being able to see all of time
        • Stated that time for God is not the same for us - God is timeless
      • Proposed a 4 dimensionalist view where the past and future exist the same way the present does
        • Time is the 4th dimension
          • God lives in this dimension and not outside of time
        • We live in the dimensions of height, length and width
      • Because God occupies all points in space and time he can judge our actions fairly
    • Swinburne
      • Richard Swinburne disagrees with Boethius and Anselm
        • This view of God as timeless contradicts the God says in the Bible - a God that interacts with people
      • God is not unchangeable as he changes his mind
        • There are biblical examples to support this
    • Plantinga
      • Alvin Plantinga believes that we are significantly free when we can perform a morally significant action
        • It is only a genuinely moral action when done freely
      • A world with no evil and free will is logically absurd
      • If God eliminated  the possibility of moral evil there would be no possibility of the greater good

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