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Old 01-15-2006, 04:03 PM
guesswest guesswest is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2005
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Default Re: Omnipotence Doesn\'t Imply Seeing The Future.

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I disagree. I don't see why omnipotence doesn't mean knowing His actions aswell. Especially when considering that He already knows what the future will be, so there really doesn't seem to be any point in changing His mind later.

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Right, seems like there wouldn't be a need, and probably isn't. But in order to maintain omnipotence he has to be able to exercise it should he choose to do so. And who knows what reason that would be? It doesn't matter, whim, boredom. Whether he does or not doesn't matter, it's enough that he can in terms of logic. I don't mug old people for a whole host of reasons, and probably never will. Saying I won't is an entirely different thing to saying I can't.

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I don't see how His knowing His own future actions denies Him of the power to choose what they'll be (or rather having chosen them in anticipation)

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It's self contained, he can't choose what they are because they're pre-determined. If you go this route god essentially becomes a useless concept, ie it's just a term for the sum of all things rather than referring to anything with autonomy.


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Something like what? Another system that isn't causality? Could it be randomness?

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A question I can't answer because I'm a determinist. Also, this is an extraordinarily developed and written about subject so I'm not going to attempt to write a synopsis here. But generally people who believe in free will refer to the existence of the 'soul', or argue that the variables are so complex that the determined human essentially has free will (the latter point I don't disagree with).
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