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Is God Omnipotent? If so?

Can the idea of of an omnipotent God coexist with the idea of free will?

  • If there was an omnipotent, and all knowing deity - then I would assume the following. i) Due to being omnipotent and all knowing, he should be able to foresee the future, including his own ii) If he sees the future, that which he sees, MUST pan out the way he saw it, since if it does not he did not see the future even though he was under the impression that he did, and thus he's not omnipotent, all powerful and all knowing...definitely not perfect. iii) If what he sees is definitely his future, and that of everything else, he would effectively loose control of his own destiny, and everything else would not have free will either since the road has already been laid out precisely. iv) If he does not have control over his own future, or that of others, how can he be omnipotent, or a God? v) If he did not have control over his own fate, or that of others, who does? vi) This would point to there being an even higher power, who'd be subjected to the same logic, which in turn would imply an even higher power, to infinity. So can the idea of an all knowing, all powerful God coexist with the idea of free will? Or is there either a God/s but no free will, or no God/s and all the free will we can imagine?

  • Answer:

    Sure, why the heck not?  An omnipotent deity can do whatever he wants, including the utterly absurd.  There are plenty of fairly prosaic contradictions in omnipotence, without having to bring in ill-defined terms like "free will". An omnipotent deity is not constrained by logic.  Belief in an omnipotent deity means placing belief in that deity over logic.  Which is, I suppose, a valid choice, since "logic" isn't actually a human strong suit. I personally prefer to go with logic when the option is available, but it would be arrogant of me to assert that it's the only conceivable possibility.

Joshua Engel at Quora Visit the source

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Omnipotence makes freedom impossible. Freedom makes omnipotence impossible. Omniscience is also incompatible with free will. If that omniscience extends into the future then the future is pre-determined. Which means the entire course of the universe was locked down since it started. Human will cannot change that outcome, and cannot be free. Any creator would be entirely responsible for all outcomes.

Glyn Williams

I don't intend to make an argument for the existence of God or free will, but I don't think your argument sufficiently disproves either. Your statement 2 violates the premise of 1. If a being is truly omnipotent, then it would not be constrained by any causes. Your model assumes that the omnipotent and omniscient being is moving through time with us, and is subject to time the same way we are. If there is an omnipotent being, then it can't be constrained by time or space the way we are. It therefore follows that perceived future events are within the power to change of an omnipotent being. You can't say that events "MUST" anything. I can conceive of a state where a being percieves the future as branches of possibilities and allows the being to freely move forward and backward, changing conditions and outcomes. This would be compatible with the Many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, and doesn't require absolute omniscience or omnipotence ... it only requires that the being be not subject to our restrictions of space and time. This doesn't mean that the being necessarily be "the" God. Imagine Q from Star Trek. :)

Anonymous

Yes - Its simple . Infact  Ominpotent with Freewill is must to be a god for humans. Let prove this in below. As per bible. "Jesus Our God can do anything, even predict that which is unpredictable like freewill given to others to do good or bad " Here is more explanation to above saying . God foreknows, but that simply means he knows what we are going to  choose at the time we choose it .  This does not mean that he makes the  choices  or  take away  our freewill . As per bible. so Ominpotent with Freewill is must. Another interesting point is unlike other fake god created by evil (who himself is neither Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Omnipresent ) is also not Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Omnipresent It is very free will with Omnipotent made him the jesus the god and accepted by man otherwise without freewill  God Jesus  will be responsible for all the worst things like rape, corruption or others in the world example what is satan is during now by confusing people. so Ominpotent with Freewill is must. you might even say clearly  other gods are fake since they don't give freewill to people .  some are also claim they have both god and evil in built which is also impossible to qualify for god since it means no freewill to people so the other second evil act will punish in this or rebirth if people sin since they are not given freewill to commit sin . This is clearly shows they are fake gods.and created by evil. For me satan fake god design is funny and flawful. Remember Jesus didnot like to punish people for their sin but wants them to repend so at that point of repend he forgives them meaning he will not punish them All this proof shows how awesome and truthful loving god is Jesus. He is simply flawless in all his design I hope it helps.

John Moses

Here's an answer to help in understanding.  G-d is omnipotent, yet how is it that one can break a flower -- the very heart of G-d -- in two?  If he was all-powerful, wouldn't he make the flower have petals of steel or perhaps strike one down when one tries to break the flower?  No, His omnipotentence exists within the context of both His Eternalness and is extant with Tiferet -- the utmost delicateness.  Only the respect of sacredness can protect that delicateness.  This is where and why faith enters in. The Free Will of Adam/Eve must learn to co-exist and collaborate with the Tree of Life (as well as each other) rather than exploit or rule it -- that is the Journey of Man to be in Harmony with his Creator. The confusion arises because of Satan; there, it's not merely "dis"obediance, but deliberate evil and avoidance of accountability.  The cold-bloodedness of snakes should not be overlooked -- they are deliberately antagonistic and go against the love of the Tree of Life.

Mark Janssen

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