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posted by [identity profile] daisho.livejournal.com at 10:19pm on 24/01/2009
Well, if one accepts the Many Worlds theory, God simply travels up and down all the various chains of causality. Free will isn't interfered with because somewhere, every result of every possible choice is played out, and God can hop back and forth along each link.

But I don't really think it's a question of time travel, per se. The sort of God we're talking about must exist outside time and therefore perceives every instant, from the beginning of the universe to the end, simultaneously. Without that problematic moving backwards through time thing, free will is again not compromised.
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cdave: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] cdave at 10:45pm on 24/01/2009
Many Worlds
If you use the Many Worlds theory, the same argument holds. If he can whiz up and down all possible timelines, then all possible actions are predetermined (and occur) in some sense. So again no free will. Breaks the rules.

The sort of God
I don't think that is the sort of God we are talking about. I could be wrong, the "outside of time" bit isn't in the Bible. Doesn't the Bible just say that he's eternal, and kind of imply by his actions and speach that he's experiencing time linearly too?
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posted by [identity profile] daisho.livejournal.com at 11:05pm on 24/01/2009
Well, I suppose the question of free will in the Many Worlds multiverse remains, whether or not God is involved. If all our possible choices are ultimately played out, are we really making choices at all? But that, perhaps, is a discussion for another time.

As for the type of God under discussion, I'm hardly a Bible scholar, being cheerfully agnostic myself, but while the Good Book might imply God experiences time as mortals do, I've seen modern philosophers and theologians discuss Divine nature in the terms I was suggesting.
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