But there is one little problem with the free will argument.
God is said to be All Knowing. So he knew exactly what choices would be made, by whom and what consequences they would have on others.
If I were All Knowing and I created a gun that would end up killing my son by the hands of someone else, wouldn't I still be the one to blame since I KNEW the ultimate outcome before I even made the gun??? How can anyone blame the person who had free will that used the gun to kill and not the creator who knowingly created a gun that he knew would kill his son...
I know it's hard for most people to wrap their minds around, it was for me. But you cannot be All Knowing, create a universe where people have free will then blame bad decisions on those with the free will. Not when you knew every choice and every consequence before you created it.........
God is said to be All Knowing. So he knew exactly what choices would be made, by whom and what consequences they would have on others.
A paradox in an 'If' game.
If I were All Knowing and I created a gun that would end up killing my son by the hands of someone else, wouldn't I still be the one to blame since I KNEW the ultimate outcome before I even made the gun???
Bad analogy. The creation, the gun, has no will at all, it's an inanimate object.
But I recognize you're presenting the paradox of predestination versus freewill.
Let's use frames of reference for consideration.
Playing the 'If' game, with predestination, God designs a pattern that has to be adhered to. No deviation, the outcome defined. There is no influence that creates choice. That would also mean no evil influence thus no Lucifer as in the Bible. There is only God and his pattern.
( by the way, predestination wrecks this thread )
If you don't believe in God, naturally you wouldn't believe in Lucifer.
If you believe in predestination though, you can't believe in the influence of evil but have to believe a supreme being is in control ( remember the pattern ? )
Now, as a believer in predestination, there is a necessary element .......your argument calls for the existence of God for there to be total control.
To make your argument beyond an 'If' game, as I see it, you'd have to first acknowledge the existence of God.
I know you aren't a believer......so how would you address this in our 'If' game?
With freewill, God makes the pattern and instructs us ( from the Bible ) to follow it.
But it's our choices to make and the pattern ( you could read this as the Ten Commandments ) can be adhered to or violated. With this scenario, there is the concept of evil to temp the choices/decisions of mankind. And there is responsibility.
Wouldn't you think that if we lived by predestination, all the laws of God ( his pattern that extends through time) would be followed to the letter? Breaking of those laws would demonstrate freewill.
Another question that might be of interest.......by granting freewill, would God be all knowing in regards to the choices life makes? Major contradiction of the concept of freewill, if so.......remember .....it's about patterns that must be followed in a predestination argument.
Perhaps this is what makes life so unique to all matter and inanimate objects.....life writes it's own pattern in time, which we experience as freewill while the rest of the universe follows laws.
But you cannot be All Knowing, create a universe where people have free will then blame bad decisions on those with the free will. Not when you knew every choice and every consequence before you created it
This is the problem with 'If' games......they aren't as simple as they seem when you add a paradox.
You can't have predestination and freewill in the same frame of reference. 'All Knowing' is a red herring and in this case, sophistry.
