Religion and Freewill Possible?

A while back I got into a small scuffle with a friend of mine about the possibility of freewill with an all knowing, all powerful being. It came down to be a very interesting argument, for the mere fact that I was able to get my point across to my very closed-minded friend. (I say this with no disrespect, my friend is very intelligent but he will admit he is very closed minded.) I have heard for the longest time if you believe in an all powerful, all knowing being then there is no possibility of freewill. Well is this true?

My friend was telling me that he had freewill. I agreed with him I too believe that we have freewill. But then he started explaining his Christian beliefs. He believes that everything has a definite ending. The bible tells us that there is a definite end and there is nothing we can do to change this end. WAIT JUST A MINUTE! If there is a definite end how can you have freewill? He tells me that he can still make his own choices it just will not matter in the end.

OK, I can buy that, but if your choices do not matter do you really have freewill or do you only have the illusion of freewill? The truth is, if you make choices but the end doesn’t change then you really do not have any freewill at all. Only the illusion that your choices are your own and they really matter. If an all knowing Christian God knows what you are going to do, before you do it, then you were never really going to do anything other than what you do; so your choices are predestined. This only solidifies my point when he told me that he believes that everything has a destined ending.

So he walked through his argument with me and found in the end that he might not have freewill after all. I can choose to eat this apple or not to eat this apple. If his God knows the answer to the question already he cannot possible have freewill. The reason this is, is because his God knows everything for all time. And the Christian God is infinite and never changing. Which means that your choice is not yours but is destined to be made already you are just following the path set out in front of you. You were always going to eat that apple even if you thought you might not. Pretty interesting statement. I then proceeded to blow my friend away with another way to look at a God. If we were to look at an all knowing, all powerful being, that knows everything, there is still a way you can have freewill.

Now I personally do not believe that I am walking down a path with the illusion of freewill. What if this god knows everything, but only knows it at one certain point in time. If we think of this God in those terms I still have the possibility of freewill. Take for example the apple in front of me. At this moment in time this God knows that I am going to eat it. I know I am going to eat it. But then a moment later I decide not to eat it and pass the apple up. Does that mean that this God is not all knowing? No it doesn’t. At that next moment not only I knew I wasn’t going to eat the apple but so did this God. Ah-ha, so the God is still all knowing, just that there isn’t a set path in front of me. I have the ability to change the direction I am on thus giving myself freewill with the possibility of there being an all powerful god. The important part here is that we only look at a certain place and time, but we can have an infinite amount of places and times so we can still have an infinitely powerful, all knowing god. The God always knows something just that something can change, and will change.

My friend let me know that this was all well and good but still doesn’t work for the christian belief, and I agreed totally with him. The way Christians believe in there God there is no possible way they can have freewill. It is and always will be an illusion if you are a true christian believer.

Questions, comments, challenges? Let me know,

BIGFIX01

Quick Religious Thought before Christmas

I thought I would post a little somethin somethin before the Christmas holiday. Religion can, a large amount of the time, be mis-understood. We are living in a world where if someone puts a Christmas nativity scene near a public building we have public outcry. Half the people are for the nativity scene and half are against it. It doesn’t seem like there is a solution to this.

Well, let’s try to remember that Christmas is one cultures holiday. I personally do not care either way if there is a scene or not. Does the public building putting up a nativity set mean that they only support one religious belief? NO of course not. The argument always comes back to the division of church and state. What is often missed is the fact that the division of church and state really isn’t relevant here. A Christmas decoration is in no way interfering with the way our public buildings or officials are working.

I am sure if someone asks to display for a Menorah to celebrate Hanukkah they would not be denied. The reason you see Christmas decorations more than others religions is because that is what the majority celebrates. I hope we can remember that this is the time of the year for certain religious groups to celebrate. We live in a free society and we should not impede on other peoples freedom. I do not see how a nativity scene is impeding on my freedom.

Both sides of this argument have very valid points and I am sure some of you would like to voice your opinions. You see where I stand lets see where you stand. Leave your opinion.

Thanks again and come back soon,

BIGFIX01

H.E.P. Thanks to WordPress

While in college I came across an interesting major called philosophy. As soon as I found it I needed to declare it a major, though this major can sometimes be mis-understood. Recently graduated and now with time on my hands I hope to post a little philosophy knowledge here on Hollow Earth Philosophy.

Starting out I will be focusing most of the posts on Religion and the Philosophy of Science. Both of these can be very interesting areas of philosophy. I came up with the name of this blog from something I studied as an undergrad in a philosophy of science class, the hollow earth theory. This is the theory that the earth is hollow and all kinds of things can be inside, from the lost city of Atlantis all the way to 8 similar earths locked inside. Weird and yet slightly intriguing.

Hopefully starting soon we can get this ball rolling on H.E.P. Please leave comments and don’t be afraid to add some philosophical arguments yourself, that is the point of philosophy. Also if you are a philosophy student or just someone interested in the major and would like to contribute to H.E.P. let me know and I will add you.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!