Job Discussion Forums

trapezius · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 9:37 pm Post subject:

I don't believe in predestination. I believe in free will. And Islam also teaches free will.

Anyway, when I said "not in my hands", that was a tongue-in-cheek comment about how we are all slaves (to varying degrees) to our dark sides!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

"Man has Free Will". How can we reconcile that idea with the belief that "God is omnipotent."

Answers in less that 200 words please.

With Malice Toward None · Joined: 20 Oct 2009 Posts: 250

I have read that a French actress, having sent a cable to Eugene O'Neill asking permission to dramatize one of his plays, with the instruction that the reply shouldn't exceed 20 words got the following reply:
"No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No. O'Neill."

007 · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:48 am Post subject:

diced260 · Joined: 24 Feb 2009 Posts: 80

Dear scot,

At the moment, I am liking Kant's articulation of the reality of our free will: i.e. we know it because we can exercise our reason and insofar as we do so without reference to the empirical conditions upon us, we are free. But, God is only a necessary presupposition in his work. For more, see the Critique of Practical Reason.

Regards,

diced

johnslat · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:00 pm Post subject: No future in it

Dear scot47,

"Man has Free Will". How can we reconcile that idea with the belief that "God is omnipotent."

This seeming conundrum exists only because we are in time (with a past, present, and future) whereas God/Allah is in eternity (where all is an everlasting "Now".)
The beginning and the end of the universe are (for want of a better word) "simultaneous" events from God's POV. When there is NO future, how can anything be "predestined."

Regards,
John

P.S. And I know this because God/Allah told me so.