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I have answered this already.
1. He knows everything.
2. Everything includes every single occurence in every possible universe.
3. He could have created any universe, but chose to create this one.
4. Every single occurence is already known and cucially, already determined, because this particular universe out of all possible universe has been chosen.
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If 1 or 2 is not true, God is not omniscient.
One and two are true.
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If 3 is not true, God himself is either not omnipotent, did not create the universe or did not Himself have free will!
I don't see how the negation of 3 would mean that God didn't have a free will. Also, when you say He chose to create this universe and not some other, what do you mean specifically? I would agree to the extent that HE chose to create the laws of nature in this universe, death, Judgment Day and set certain limits upon us, but free will has nothing to do with that. We have the free will to choose how we want to live within those limits. He didn't choose how we would exercise our free will, He simply knew what will happen. Are you suggesting that after seeing how we would end up, He should have set other laws? Wouldn't that actually be influence, rather than letting it play out as it has? Are you suggesting that HE wasn't mercifull enough; that the universe He created for us and the laws that we operate under were not fair enough, and therefore you blame Him for the things that happen? We could debate these things, but if you are suggesting that He predestined everything to happen a certain way, then that is simply not true, and your argument doesn't prove that, because you never link knowledge to influence in any logical way. He did let things happen as they did, and they happened with His approval.. He approved us to have a free will and do as we please.
This is how I imagine it to be: God created the universe, and He created the laws within it, then He created the first human beings, gave them free will, sent the Prophets to guide them, and let it all play out. He saw what would happen, and decided to let it be, believing that His laws and the universe He created were just and that everyone had a fair chance.
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4 follows logically from 2 and 3.
Not really. 1 and 2 talk about His knowledge. 3 is not clear enough, and I have explained above why. 4 simply concludes something that is not logically linked to 2, and because 3 appears to be faulty, it is not possible to make 4 valid based on it. Where do you get the impression that God chose this universe? Doesn't that imply that He actually didn't influence anything, because if He had chosen something else, that would actually mean that He intervened in the natural procession of things. I wouldn't use choose in this context because it is confusing and doesn't really describe the reality. If we assume that He only LET things happen in their natural procession, than your argument doesn't stand. You never linked knowledge with predestination, but simply stated in 1 and 2 that He had knowledge of everything, and then you concluded that because He had knowledge that means He predestined it. There is no link between those two.
Also, Wifflingpin perfectly explains what my argument is. Using descriptive words for time such as "before", "after", "prior" when we talk about God is not correct, because God is not limited by time, and we are doing just that by expressing ourselves in that way.
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Assuming that God exists, we have not the slightest idea or concept how he operates or what he knows in his own sphere. In terms of the created universe, our free will may be consistent with his total knowledge, because what, to us appears infinite time is to him an instant. In his terms, not that I can know anything about them, the created universe has no before, during and after, it just is and is not; his knowledge of all its being and its end is instantaneous with the moment of creation, because its beginning and end are not separated.
Perfectly stated. :nod: