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God is omniscient, that means He knows the only one future. The only one future will become the only one past after some time. Thus we are sure that this future is really only one. It will be identified later. Being free of making decisions means being free to give different directions to the future, but God knows that the only one future before his eyes cannot be changed.

Does this means He isn't free to make any decision?

curiousdannii
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    Omniscient might mean "knows what will be the consequences of any his choice", so there could be multiple futures. – rus9384 Oct 29 '18 at 21:55
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    with hyperbole comes contradiction, yet such is the nature of deity that it can be construed so as to allow contradiction. – MmmHmm Oct 29 '18 at 22:19
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    God is atemporal, for him there is no past or future. He knows all of being in a single act of comprehension. That is one solution to the foreknowledge/free will dilemma. SEP discusses several others. – Conifold Oct 30 '18 at 02:07
  • I made an edit to hopefully clarify the question. If I got this wrong you may roll it back or continue editing. Welcome to this SE! – Frank Hubeny Oct 30 '18 at 20:41
  • For this question to be answerable it needs to be specified which God we're talking about, as monotheistic philosophies vary greatly, even in different denominations, on the exact nature and properties of this concept. – Carl Masens Oct 31 '18 at 06:05
  • Defined as He is here God cannot make decisions. A God that needed to make decisions would be a very weird idea. Then we'd have to wonder if He always made the correct one, or how He could ever know. –  Nov 13 '18 at 10:49
  • The question takes for granted that god cannot exist in an indeterministic universe – Nikos M. Nov 06 '22 at 18:11

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There are alternate views of God's omniscience.

For example, open theists see God's omniscience as knowing everything there is to know, but the free acts of creatures or the free acts of God would not be something that there is to know in advance.

Here is how James Rissler describes it:

Even though God is all-powerful, allowing Him to do everything that can be done, He cannot create round squares or make 2 +2 = 5 or do anything that is logically impossible. Omniscience is understood in a similar manner. God is all-knowing and can know all that can be known, but He cannot know the contingent future, since that too, is impossible. God knows all the possible ways the world might go at any point in time, but He does not know the one way the world will go, so long as some part of what will happen in the future is contingent.

This idea of omniscience would allow for there to be more than one possible future. There may be other ways to conceive of there being more than one possible future.

Let's consider the question: Does this means He [God] isn't free to make any decision?

If omniscience means knowing everything there is to know, but not knowing what is not knowable, such as the precise choices of free agents (including God's own choices), then this would be one way for God or other free agents to make decisions allowing for there to be more than one possible future.


Reference

James Rissler, "Open Theism", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://www.iep.utm.edu/o-theism/

Frank Hubeny
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  • Pretty horrible mess : did Jesus know with 100% certainty Judas would betray him, priests would condemn him, and Pilate would crucify him ? Anyone of these could wreck supposedly free people could wreck God's plan for salvation trough crucifixion . – rs.29 Oct 31 '18 at 03:04
  • @rs.29 All Frank Hubney outlined was the widely held minority view in Christianity that God is inside time, not outside of it. This leads to far less of a "horrible mess" than efforts to reconcile a God outside of time, with any concept of agency for God. Any plans that an omniscient being inside time makes, are very likely to be successful, despite the intrinsic uncertainty of our universe. Add in omnipotence, and any such plans are basically guaranteed to succeed. Meanwhile any plan for "salvation thru crucifixion" is silly/nonsensical, or downright evil, so is hardly a refuting
    case.
    – Dcleve Nov 07 '22 at 20:53
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In traditional Christian theology, God's omniscience means that God knows everything that can be known. There are no gaps in his knowledge. No mysteries to be discovered and nothing to learn. But there are things that can't be known because they're nonsensical. God's omniscience doesn't mean that he knows what a three sided square looks like or how to divide by zero (except when it's defined by convention as in IEEE 754).

In traditional Christian theology God is also said to have free will, though there are more qualifications and disagreements about what exactly that means than for omniscience. In Reformed Protestantism I think God's free sovereign will can be described as God being completely free from any external compelling will, but at the same time that he always wills and acts entirely true to himself. (Most other branches of Christianity would mostly agree with this.) As God's character is that he is loving, truthful, and just, everything he does reflects those aspects of his character. But within the "boundary" of never being inconsistent with who he is (hence his immutability), there is much that he is completely free to choose. For example, there is no inherent reason why the solar system we live in has to have eight planets. Seven planets would have been fine, as would nine or ten. God's decision to create our solar system with eight planets (and thousands of dwarf planets etc.) can accurately be described as a "free" choice.

So how do these two doctrines interact? You're right that on the surface it does seem as if they are in conflict. If God knows all, then that would include all his choices, so wouldn't that mean that to be true to himself there is only one set of choices he can make?

This is one time where we are limited by our nature: we cannot understand how God exists as a timeless being. Even his decision to create the universe was a free choice, for he was under no compulsion to do so, although creating people for him to love is entirely consistent with his character. Having decided to create the universe there were no physical or logical reasons which compelled him to create an eight planet solar system, and its hard to conceive of a reason why that would be part of his character. So I have to conclude that there are many possible universes that he could have created, and that he knows everything about those alternative universes that can be known. The future is what he knows will happen because out of all the possible futures this is the one he has chosen. But I don't think we should think of God's will being constrained by his foreknowledge. It may be better for us to think of God's omniscience and his choices as being "concurrent", although concurrency is not something that applies to a timeless being.

Wherever there is more than one possible reality (such as the number of planets in our solar system), that is proof that God's will is active. As the only self-existing being (the doctrine of Aseity) everything else is contingent on God, and so must depend on him as the ultimate cause, and where there are possible alternatives they must depend on his will.

In these quotes from the Westminster Confession of Faith we can see Reformed Christianity's teachings on God's omniscience, free will, and that he does not will because of his foreknowledge.

God has all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto he himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleases. In his sight all things are open and manifest, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them. (WCF 2.2)

God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (WCF 3.1)

Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has he not decreed anything because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions. (WCF 3.2)

God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. (WCF 5.1)

So according to traditional Reformed Theology, these two doctrines are to be upheld alongside each other, without conflict, and without one being dependent on the other. What is not said is how the timeless God experiences his omniscience and his sovereign will.

curiousdannii
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  • Well, God knows what a three sided square looks like or how to divide by zero. He knows that first doesn't exist and other is undefined in human mathematics. Also, in traditional Christina theology , God doesn't have free will, he always act optimally for the benefit of world and his own plan. – rs.29 Oct 31 '18 at 03:00
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    @rs.29 1) Knowing the status of something is not the same as knowing its appearance. 2) What leads you to say that in traditional Christian theology God doesn't have free will? The Westminster Confession clearly says he does: "God the great Creator of all things does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy." (WCF 5.1) – curiousdannii Oct 31 '18 at 03:06
  • If a status of something is that it doesn't have appearance, then that is its appearance :) 2) Sorry, but free and immutable, especially if its infallible, do not mix together :) If the will of God is immutable and infallible, he really doesn't have a choice (i.e. he always act optimally, he cannot freely choose something wrong or foolish). That is a curse of being God , I guess :)
  • – rs.29 Oct 31 '18 at 08:43