Sunday, February 08, 2004

the logical problem of god's absolute foreknowledge and man's free-will

this is partially from an e-mail i wrote a month ago to respond to a critique of my paper from someone who wandered onto my site.

(p1) if a person has free-will in performing an action, then it must be actually possible for her to either (A) perform that action or (B) not perform that action. (def of libertarian free-will).
(p2) she cannot both A and B. (principle of exlude the middle).
(p3) if god has absolute foreknowledge, then god knows and cannot be wrong in knowing that the person will either A or B. (def of absolute foreknowledge)

with these three in place, let's assume that god does have absolute foreknowledge and that he knows the person will A (perform the action)

(p4) god knows A (p3)
(p5) A occuring is true (p3 and p4)
(p6) it is impossible for B to happen (p5 and p2)
(p7) therefore, if god has absolute foreknowldge, then there is only one possible option for the person to do (p5 and p6)
(conclusion) god's absolute foreknowledge is not compatible with free will (p1, p3, p7)

here is the same thing with an example that can be swapped with any choice we can make

(p1) if jenna has free-will then it is both actually possible for her to either eat salad for dinner or not eat salad for dinner.
(p2) she cannot both eat and not eat salad for dinner.
(p3) if god has absolute foreknowledge, then god knows whether or not she will eat salad

(p4) god has absolute foreknowledge and knows jenna will eat salad for dinner (p3)
(p5) then jenna will eat salad for dinner (p3 and p4)
(p6) it is impossible for jenna to not eat salad (p5 and p2)
(p7) there is only one possible thing for jenna to do (p5 and p6)
(conclusion) god's absolute foreknowledge is not compatible with free will to eat or not eat salad(p1, p3, p7)