A Response to Open Theism: Terminology Needed
Warning! Religious philosophy present! Abandon hope all ye who enter here!
Things like the "past", "present" and "future" tend to lose all meaning if you believe that God exists at all times in all ways. The whole of existence, if you will, is a timeless paradigm, and there is no contradiction in an infinite being existing with all of "you" at all points in time, so to speak.
How many of you are there? Naturally, only one. We have a perception of time that leads us to believe that there is a "past me" or a "future me", but all there is is you- past, present and future. And just like how God relates to the "total you" unhindered by concepts of time, God so relates to the totality of existence in all its manifestations.
That is, what is the "past, present and future" to us are simultaneously existing realities. In actuality, it is simply one, whole reality exhibiting a type of supraliminal totality beyond our "current" faculties of perception. We are "slowed down" so to speak, able only to process and conceive of existence in a series of successive chunks. What we call time.
This would seem to lend itself to determinism, but I don't think this is the case at all. If there was only the "present you" and nothing else, you could argue for free-will. The fact that you seem to exhibit free-will at all times and in all places means that the whole of existence always exhibits a fundamentally free-will characteristic.
That while God demonstrates Total Knowledge, it is Total Knowledge of a Universe-object which is free. The ends of our free-will never surpass the immense nature of his knowledge. While we are free, it is a freedom that is never beyond God's understanding. This seems a natural conclusion if you think that the whole concept of "free-will" is a created, invented concept by God to begin with.
Things like the "past", "present" and "future" tend to lose all meaning if you believe that God exists at all times in all ways. The whole of existence, if you will, is a timeless paradigm, and there is no contradiction in an infinite being existing with all of "you" at all points in time, so to speak.
How many of you are there? Naturally, only one. We have a perception of time that leads us to believe that there is a "past me" or a "future me", but all there is is you- past, present and future. And just like how God relates to the "total you" unhindered by concepts of time, God so relates to the totality of existence in all its manifestations.
That is, what is the "past, present and future" to us are simultaneously existing realities. In actuality, it is simply one, whole reality exhibiting a type of supraliminal totality beyond our "current" faculties of perception. We are "slowed down" so to speak, able only to process and conceive of existence in a series of successive chunks. What we call time.
This would seem to lend itself to determinism, but I don't think this is the case at all. If there was only the "present you" and nothing else, you could argue for free-will. The fact that you seem to exhibit free-will at all times and in all places means that the whole of existence always exhibits a fundamentally free-will characteristic.
That while God demonstrates Total Knowledge, it is Total Knowledge of a Universe-object which is free. The ends of our free-will never surpass the immense nature of his knowledge. While we are free, it is a freedom that is never beyond God's understanding. This seems a natural conclusion if you think that the whole concept of "free-will" is a created, invented concept by God to begin with.