Divine Timelessness/Eternity and Libertarian Free WIll
Suppose that God is changeless and that he knows the actual state of affairs changelessly. See note.
Since God knows the actual state of affairs changelessly, God knows, changelessly and eternally, that I will have difficulty understanding how libertarian free will is compossible with God knowing every thought and action I will carry out changelessly and eternally.
How is it possible for God to know, changelessly and eternally, that on Feb 2019 I go on philosophy forums and for me to have libertarian free will? Usually, I hear that simply because God knows that on so-&-so date that I do X does not mean that I necessarily do X, but, if God knows X changelessly and eternally, then how could X ever fail to happen? I agree that X is not "necessary," but simply because it is possible for X to be contingent, does not mean that I had the power to do otherwise.
Does anyone have any ideas?
For sake of argument, assume that libertarian free will is true and that compatibilism is false.
Note: In the relational theory of time, if X is changeless, then X does not experience time since time just is change. So X is timeless.
Since God knows the actual state of affairs changelessly, God knows, changelessly and eternally, that I will have difficulty understanding how libertarian free will is compossible with God knowing every thought and action I will carry out changelessly and eternally.
How is it possible for God to know, changelessly and eternally, that on Feb 2019 I go on philosophy forums and for me to have libertarian free will? Usually, I hear that simply because God knows that on so-&-so date that I do X does not mean that I necessarily do X, but, if God knows X changelessly and eternally, then how could X ever fail to happen? I agree that X is not "necessary," but simply because it is possible for X to be contingent, does not mean that I had the power to do otherwise.
Does anyone have any ideas?
For sake of argument, assume that libertarian free will is true and that compatibilism is false.
Note: In the relational theory of time, if X is changeless, then X does not experience time since time just is change. So X is timeless.
Comments (17)
I agree that it is fallacious to say that If God knows X, then X is necessary or that God's knowledge causes X.
However, since God only knows the actual state of affairs, and that that includes every thought and action I do, then how could I ever make those thoughts and actions fail to happen?
How could I ever do otherwise?
Simply saying that those thoughts and action are contingent is not enough for those thoughts and actions to be said to have been brought about by libertarian free will.
You're assuming God uses causality to know our choices. You seem to think that God knows us thoroughly and from that has preknowledge of our decisions. This reasoning is something like knowing the initial state of a physical system and then deducing its future state.
It is a possible explanation of God's omniscience and would preclude free will for us.
However, what if God's knowledge isn't deduction based but a type of clairvoyance for lack of a better word. He knows what we'll do BUT not by deduction but something else - a sixth sense so to speak.
Imagine we have free will and we are in a movie doing things with complete freedom. God knows what we'll do not because he deduces our future states from knowledge of our initial states but because he has full access to the entire movie. I couldn't find a better analogy. Sorry.
I don't see how this helps libertarian free will.
God knows, changelessly and eternally, the actual state of affairs.
God knows, changelessly and eternally, that I eat pizza on my 20th birthday.
How could I ever do otherwise?
What you are saying is that what I eat on my 2nd birthday, what I eat on my 22nd birthday, what I I on my 82nd birthday and what I eat on my 122nd birthday are all equally real and are in the state of occurring. If that is all true, then it seems like I never had time to make a thought, choice, or action since all three exist already and God knows of them.
I thought that the usual approach was that God knows everything there is to know, but that doesn't include freely willed choices that you'll make, since those don't obtain prior to you making them, and they're not a causal consequence of previous states of the world.
We can hypothesize the existence of an omniscient God that knows everything that happens in time and space, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he knows before (or after) it happens. So we shouldn't say that God knows what we are going to do before we do it, suggesting that we can't do anything else.
We needn't conclude that God's knowing somehow constrains what happens. The details of what happens might indeed be the result of the free choices of the ants in God's little ant-farm. God just knows (timelessly) the outcomes of those choices.
While a desire to understand such a being seems innate, we do not posses the tools of reason that would allow such an understanding. And all attempts at reason, in understanding such a concept as the nature of God, fail before they start, because we have no reasonable basis to believe we can say anything at all about what God is, is not, can or can't do.
Now as far as God knowing what we are going to do ahead of time and possibly deviating from it... I would put on the table the illusion of free will is a reflection of our own feelings about our perceived humility (feelings of powerlessness), and that God is also humble.
What would it look like?
Imagine you're a game developer!
Cinema.
What does it look like? People/objects freeze in their tracks?
:chin:
Timelessness as in ek (outside) of time.