davidm

Well, in the Lewis version of the multiverse I mentioned, it would seem that some version of Reality contains an after life, though not necessarily our own. He does not dwell on the God aspect of his model. He does say somewhere that, for example, the supernatural Greek God pantheon does literally exist, just not in our version of Reality.

You've just pointed out yourself the contradiction in your position. You say in God's mind we're following a script, but we can't apply that notion in real life, because everyone would be pleading Not Guilty to their crimes. Exactly! We PRETEND that real free will exists, so as to maintain a stable society and probably our own sanity. But it doesn't objectively exist, if God is omniscient. God knows the script, and we are his puppets.

emotional

No, we're not pretending. What difference does it make, anyway? I decide, I act, I am responsible for my actions, even though it is all foreknown to God. I neither feel nor think there is any cognitive dissonance here.

You may ask why I assume there is a God at all, and why I assume He is omniscient. For the first matter: I assume God not because of any logical, rational or evidential need to do so, but simply because belief in God provides ground for belief in an afterlife, which for me is an absolutely essential and non-negotiable doctrine. For the second matter: assuming God the Creator, then He created time, and therefore transcends time, and therefore is not bound by time for His knowledge of things, and therefore is omniscient.

davidm

Well, as Mageth just pointed out, the problem you have is that everyone has only one path, due to God's foreknowledge of it. When I make what I perceive to be a choice, I must necessarily make the choice that God foresees. This means I literally have no choice in the matter! Again, omniscience entails that free will is an illusion, because you can make ONLY ONE choice when faced with a set of options. You don't have the option of making the choice that God foresees you will not make.

As to the rest, an entity that transcends time makes no sense to me. What does it even mean? If it does mean something, one could contend, for example, that an omniscient God who is also omnipotent must necessarily have the power to suppress his omniscience, his knowledge of His creation. In this way He could maintain our free will by suspending His foreknowledge of our choices.

emotional

Gentlemen, I've reached a dead end.

I believe in both God's omniscience and decisional free will, and I see no contradiction or dissonance between. I don't know how it works, but it works.

BadBadBad

So some where in the countless set of web pages you've referenced I'll find the authoritative source of all the virtually countless assertions you've made in this thread? Can you please be a little more specific? Can you provide specific references for each assertion you've made, and then provide some basis why these books and web sites are any more of an authority on God than you? I mean as a non-christian, you don't even have the supposed authority of a God breathed sacred book. Just some web site? That's it?

You see, this is how we got Christianity in the first place. Your beliefs are loosely related to Christianity. They're filtered and refined from that. Take what you like and leave the rest. Then add in some things you liked on a web page and a couple of books, and there you go. A new religion. That's exactly how Christianity got started.

Now all you need to do is to write it all down in a "sacred" book, evangelize your version of god, get the meme going, gather followers, take a vote among the followers and proclaim your sacred book as the God breathed word of God, etc, etc. Unfortunately, just like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or any other religion ever invented there's just absolutely no basis for it. But hey, I'm open minded. Why don't you give us the specific URL that will establish beyond any doubt that God exists just as you say he does.

Before you do. I want to assure you you're wrong. You're god doesn't exist. My God does, and I have a URL to prove it:

Find God Here

Whether you accept my source or not, it's a fact.

emotional

Flame deleted - liv

BadBadBad

Nice personal attack!

emotional

Flame deleted - liv

Mageth

Now I understand why your screen name is "emotional."

BTW, your last two posts clearly violate forum rules and will be edited by the mods, possibly with a warning to you. Save them (and yourself) the trouble and edit them yourself, why don't you?

emotional

If and only if brettc edits his first.