by jimwalton » Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:06 pm
Knowledge of what his creatures would do implies his ability to see, not his interference to force or determine them to do it. No matter how much I know, my knowledge doesn't make anybody do anything. If I were able to travel forward in time to see what you were going to write back to me, or to not even respond, my seeing that would not force you to write what you of your own free will choose to write, or even not to write at all. Knowledge is not causative, and even all-knowledge (omniscience) is not causative. Knowledge only sees or comprehends, it cannot coerce.
> If he wanted them not to, he would have created them a way he knew wouldn't be faulty.
Their ability to choose either right or wrong is not a condition of "faulty." Free will, to be free, must be free. If free will is restricted from choosing badly, it is not free. When God created them to be able to use their minds, He cannot then restrict how they can use them. They are free agents, and that is a beneficial state of affairs, not a faulty one.
> If he couldn't know that they would do it because of free will, then he isn't omniscient and here lies an absurdity.
No problem here. God knew they would do it because of free will. But free will that isn't free isn't free will. God can see, but God does not coerce. Therefore, there is no absurdity, either in God's omniscience, humankind's free will, or humankind's wrong choices.