Paul said:
GameOver22 said:
I always thought this argument resulted from confusion concerning what counts as knowledge for God. We tend to define knowledge in terms relative to human experience. Mainly, we are finite beings existing at a point in time, and we experience past, present, and future. We can have knowlegde of the past and present because we can test whether our experience corresponds with reality. We can't do this with the future because there is no reality with which to compare.
God, on the other hand, is not limited by space and time. He is a timeless being, and the notions of past, present, and future do not apply to him. The reason God knows the future is not because he lives in the present and can predict the future. The reason God knows the future is because He exists at all points in time and has already experienced every occurence that will happen (past, present, and future). In this sense, God's knowledge comes from experience, and He is not controlling the future. He is a timeless observer. Taking this view, I think omnisciennce and free will are compatible, but I have no idea if Abrahamic religions would accept the argument. There are just so many competing notions of God's characteristics.
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What does that mean and how could you possibly know that?
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Well, I don't know that. I was just giving an argument based on the characteristics often times attributed to God.
Edit: By timeless, I mean God does not exist in the physical world in the same way as humans do. God is generally described as non-physical, so the notions we have of human experience do not apply to him. Unlike humans, God is not constrained to a certain time and place, and this causes theologians to posit that he exists outside time. From here, you could argue that since God exists outside of time, all moments in time are observable by him (e.g. there is no past or future for God because he can experience it all at one time).
