The part that grabbed me most was in Prose III, where Boethius is questioning how there can be free will if God knows everything that is going to happen for each individual person. I have found myself wondering the same thing before. If God knows all that is to come in my life, then how is it I have the free will to choose in my life, if the consequences of any choice I make, either good or bad, is already decided? How is it that is free will? Now, I can see where Philosophy is coming from when she speaks on how we cannot try and think like God, as we are temporary, finite beings whereas He is an eternal, infinite being, but my confusion, like Boethius, remains. I will admit I became lost in all the words and rereading sections over again did not help, so I probably missed something that could make it clearer. However, as it stands now, I remain lost on the distinction, and I believe Boethius is as well.
I commented on Hannah and Ethan's posts.
I wrestle with this as well. The way I am trying to reconcile it all is that maybe since God operates outside of time, everything is occurring at the same time. And that is how we are able to still have free will, while He remains sovereign. I doubt we will ever be able to fully understand, though. Although we want to wrestle with these things, at the end of the day, we simply have to trust in His sovereignty.
ReplyDeleteI think if God did not give us the opportunity to have free will, He would not be the God we know and love and worship. He would be a tyrant, only wanting us to do his bidding not actually wanting a relationship with us. I don't think that he would have sent Jesus to save us.
ReplyDeleteI think that we have free will, but God already knows what we're going to choose to do throughout our lives and has already planned our future accordingly. Free will is a very interesting subject That I've never thought on seriously until now.
ReplyDeleteFree will is fun though! Especially when comparing it to God's Sovereignty (don't take that in the wrong way)! God is sovereign, that we can all agree upon: there is nothing that happens in this world that takes God by surprise. However, when considering the thought of free will, we view it personally as, "Our future is only effected by our own actions! Nothing controls my fate!" In reality, God technically has already decided where we end up, whether we choose to accept that or not if He is to remain all-powerful and all-knowing. We are stuck in the boundaries of "time" where we see past, present, and future. God just...sees. So from our own understanding and perspective, we have free will and we exercise it because we do not know our own destiny, and so we act (almost) randomly (unless you consciously think of how EVERY action you do will affect your fate, which I think no one here does). God doesn't see free will the same as you and I, but what is not seen by you and I.
ReplyDeleteLike I said: fun. :D