david@ssc-vax.UUCP (David Norris) (02/27/84)
Byron Howes, on free will: > David Norris asks why omniscience makes free will irrelevant. I think > that is a fair question. First, however, let me clear up a misconcep- > tion that somehow has crept into this discussion. To say that free > will is irrelevant is not to say that it doesn't exist, but merely to > say that it has no meaningful consequences. The concept of free-will > is not destroyed, but becomes superfluous when viewed at the global > (omniscient) level. > > As I have read this (and other) discussions, the reason that G*d gave > man free will was so that man could choose to obey and love G-d or > not. G-d, being omniscient, already knows the outcome of that choice -- > that is to say that G-d knows already whether any given human will > choose to love him or not. This does not deny the existance of a > process of choice, or that it is somehow important at the local (human) > level. As the outcome is known to G-d, however, irrespective of > the choice process, the choice process becomes superfluous to the > ultimate disposition of the soul. This last, of course, is also > already known. Given, then, that free will exists, I will ask yet another question: Why does God's foreknowledge of our free-will choices make those choices superfluous? In what way does this diminish the impact of those decisions? The conclusion that the choice process is superfluous because the outcome is already known is non-sequitur. -- David Norris :-) -- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david
cmsj@ihuxm.UUCP (Chris Jachcinski) (02/29/84)
I am an occasional reader of this group and it seems that
there are some people who submit an incredibly large number
of lengthy articles on various topics. I just can't help
but wonder "is this part of their job description?" or are
they so "into" what they're writing about that they spend
time "after hours" writing their articles. I guess my
comments could apply to any group on the net, but the ones
I see in this group are by far the lengthiest and most
frequently submitted by the same authors.
(For those who care: I generally read, and submit short
articles to various groups, on "my own", not the company's
time.)
Chris Jachcinski
AT&T Bell Labs
Naperville, IL
..!ihnp4!ihuxm!cmsj