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jeepney
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 3
| Posted 3/19/2003 4:18 PM (GMT -6) |   | In "God Of The Possible" Mr. Boyd asks, "if God foreknew that Adolf Hitler would send six million Jews to their death, why did He go ahead and create a man like that? If I unleash a mad dog I am certain will bite you, am I not responsible for my dog's behavior?". Here Mr. Boyd is not only dealing with God's foreknowlede but also God's act of making sure that His foreknowledge comes to pass by going ahead and creating Hitler after knowing in advance all he would do. If we were to assume that God did create mankind but does not create every individual human and if we were to assume that God did in fact possess foreknowledge of Hitler's birth and all the horrors he committed, would this impose upon God the OBLIGATION to prevent Hitler from being born. Assuming that God could actually intervene in spite of His foreknowledge and prevent Hitler's birth, would He in His freedom and sovereignty be free to choose to NOT intervene. It would be one thing for God to know that a certain dog intends to bite an individual and then release the dog and it would be another thing for God to simply know that a loose dog intends to bite an individual and then choose to not intervene for whatever reason He might have for nonintervention. It isn't necessary for God to look through a magical lense into the future to foresee various evils about to occur. By observing the world at large and by knowing the thoughts and intentions that exists inside of the hearts of men God is able to foresee evil events about to occur. Well, Hitler did kill millions and great and horrendous evils do occur. As for me I believe that God in His freedom and sovereignty is perfectly free to intervene and to NOT intervene irregardless of what He foreknows, foresees, or predicts. I do believe that if God was to CAUSE a criminal to commit a crime in order to make sure His foreknowledge comes true then He would at least be partly responsible for the crime. I do not believe that if God simply foreknew of a criminal act and refrained himself from preventing it that this would make him (God) responsible for any of the guilt. I would love to hear the thoughts of anyone willing to respond. I have no intentions of debating anyone. I would just love to hear some thoughts. Mr. Boyd if your reading this I would love to hear from you. Perhaps someone out there might be able to direct me to where I might find Mr. Boyd's position on God's freedom to not intervene. Anyway, have a good day.
Sincerly,
Jeepney (formerly Yankee)
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Laika
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 2433
| Posted 3/20/2003 7:03 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
By observing the world at large and by knowing the thoughts and intentions that exists inside of the hearts of men God is able to foresee evil events about to occur.
I agree with this, partly. Right at the point of the decision,
God has a hugh data set to work from so he could predict accurately
in many cases should he choose to. Before the agents existed
though, the data set for that decision didn't either, so it's
un-foreknowable.
Without us being free moral agents making our own spontaneous,
creative decisions, why would he make us at all? Why not just
run the scenario through his mind and not bother with the messiness
of imperfect free moral agents?
_________________________
1 + 1 = 3 for large values of 1
Edited by - Laika on 03/20/2003 12:43:30 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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