The Compatibility of Human Freedom and Omniscience

Note: The following argument is largely directly derived from William Lane Craig’s “The Only Wise God”

How is it that we have freedom if God already knows our action before we do it?

The main thing to understand here is that the so-called problem here is based more on fatalism than anything else.

The premise is this: If God is omniscient, then anything He knows is true, by necessity. So, if He knows the future, then we do not have free choice because we cannot make something He knows be wrong. Therefore, if He knows, say, that I will post this, then I MUST, I simply cannot do anything else, because God cannot err.

The simplest way to answer this, is to address the argument itself and prove that this argument is actually a logical fallacy.

The syllogism can be stated as follows (Craig):

1. Necessarily, if God foreknows x, then x will happen.

2. If God is omniscient, God foreknows x.

3. Therefore, x will necessarily happen.

Now this seems like common sense. But, let’s look at another syllogism that is based on the same logic.

1. Necessarily, if I am a bachelor, than I am unmarried.

2. I am a bachelor.

3. Therefore, I am necessarily unmarried.

So now we see the logical fallacy, for it is obvious that I, as a bachelor, am not unmarried BY NECESSITY, but because I simply have not chosen to marry yet. In fact, I hope to marry someday, but according to this syllogism, which is constructed exactly the same as the first, I would not, by necessity, EVER be married.

It should then be obvious that there is a complete logical fallacy in asserting the former syllogism.

In this brief discussion, I have only one more point to make. That is this kind of theological fatalism, which asserts the first syllogism, is no different from Greek philosophical fatalism. Adding the “omniscience of God” into the equation is just a substitute for knowledge in general.

For example, there is no difference in saying that “If God is omniscient and has foreknowledge, then what He knows MUST happen” and “If there is a true statement about the future, that statement MUST happen.”

Substituting God for a true statement about the future is just a way to add another layer of confusion into this fallacious assertion of fatalism (Craig). In a syllogism, I could put it as follows:

1. Person A knows that it is true that Person B will do X.

2. It would be a contradiction to say that “It is both true and false that Person B will do x”

3. Therefore, person B must do X.

Plugging God into the equation is, in my opinion, more of a scare tactic for fatalism than anything else. A logical fallacy is a logical fallacy, no matter who is involved. The syllogism could also be:

1. It is true that person B will do X.

2. It would be a contradiction to say that “It is both true and false that person B will do x”

3. Therefore, person B must do X.

These statements fall to the same fallacy as the one with God’s knowledge being necessarily true. The point is that ANY true statement is true, so it can’t be false.

Therefore, human freedom IS compatible with divine foreknowledge, because knowledge of something’s factual status does not determine the fact.

This is already longer than I wanted it to be, if anyone wants more I’d be glad to expand on it.

Source:

Craig, William Lane. “The Only Wise God.”