By reading this we will assume there is a God (or a life-force/spirit/etc...) that exists. Otherwise the argument is pointless. We will also not use quotes from any religious texts, since there are many that contradict one another and are too ambiguous.
....................................................................................................................................................-The Paradox-
When the question is asked whether or not man has free will or if God has a plan, an ambiguous answer is often given, “you have free will, but God knows what decision you will make”. If this is the case, if God knows the out come, then there is no other possible choice for you to make. If God knows what you will choose to do and what will happen, then each person has a destiny and therefore lacks true free will.
To explain this further, let us say God knows that you will make the choice to eat pizza for lunch today. If God knows the choice we will make and what will happen, then it has to happen. There is no way for you to eat anything else for lunch today, if God truly knows that you will eat pizza. If something is going to happen and there is no other option except for you to do it, then you truly have no choice. It certainly appears that you have a decision, you can choose anything you wish for lunch, but God already knows you will choose pizza. While this choice seems to us as though we made it, on the level of comprehension of God (which we surely do not comprehend) the choice was already known and only appeared to be real for us.
One scenario we will use is that in five years God knows you will make the choice to kill a man. If this is a true statement then there is no need to use the phrase “make the choice to”…
If I may digress, in this observation we are using the term of God as it can only be understood; without religious texts or traditions which there are so many that the contradictions alone would render this discussion impotent. Instead we look at God with human reason, which is truly all we have in our repertoire to think of such things. He is a being that is truly beyond complete human comprehension, Creator of all and not created, the beginning and end of all things and neither has a beginning nor an ending, that He is great and all things are below him, and that He is right in whatever His actions (as opposed to what we may feel is right or wrong). Regardless of what man made texts say about God these things must be true for Him to exist as the one true God for it is greater to exist than not exist.
If God knows that we will decide to kill a man in five years, there is nothing we can do to change that, regardless of the fact that we have absolutely no idea we will do this and would do anything to the contrary if we had the foreknowledge. If a decision is known beforehand by God that we will do something, five years beforehand, and it is known by God, omnipotent and omniscient, then it has to happen. If this has to happen, as God knows it will, then there is no way for you to do other wise. If God knows you will kill a man, or choose to kill a man, in five years, then you will kill a man in five years. Otherwise, how could there be a God that is omniscient, yet not know your choice before it is made? This is your decision, but the outcome of which is already known. This is not a choice, but the illusion of a choice. How can you truly make a choice if the outcome is already known beforehand by a higher being?
It is argued that God simply knows the decision that we will make. That it is our free will to choose one thing over another and God knows this. But if God knows this then there is no way to do otherwise, even if it appears that we freely chose to do it. This is nothing but the illusion of choice. The illusion of free will. Certainly on our level of comprehension it absolutely seems as though we made that choice freely, but a choice where the outcome is already known is not a choice at all. If God truly bestowed free will on man there is no way He could know our decisions or their outcomes. There is no way He could know the future. This would create a Paradox; how is God all mighty, all powerful, all knowing, if he does not know the simple future of man?
Thus the Paradox is, if there is a God He can do anything He wills, except give Free Will to man, because in order to do this he would not be able to know the choices we make, therefore, not be omniscient and therefore not be God.
Continued with: The Free Will Paradox - Part II: The Apple
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