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From: david@ssc-vax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Free will (my 2 cents)
Message-ID: <832@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 16:11:45 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.832
Posted: Thu Feb 16 16:11:45 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Feb-84 05:38:19 EST
Organization: Boeing Aerospace, Seattle
Lines: 27

Jon White, in response to Gary Samualson:

>If God is truly "outside of time," and capable of travelling into the future to
> observe our actions, He must have created the entire lifetime of the universe
> at the moment of creation.  If He can observe the future, there must be a 
> future out there for Him to observe.  Of course, this means that we are merely
> puppets playing out our roles.

I don't see how this follows.  Watching somebody do something is not the same
as making them do it.  Personally, I believe that God is not constrained by
time; but that is a personal (and not well substantiated) belief.  It helps me
to get by, and has the advantage that it is not provable (or disprovable).  
Of course, we are always going to run into the trouble of finite man trying
to explain infinite God, but it seems to me that any proof that God has some
limit to his power is going to be flawed because it is based on finite 
reasoning.  I often wonder if proponents of such arguments are themselves
unaware of the limits that time imposes on their thinking; Jon may demonstrate
my point when he said "capable of travelling...".  This implies that God
can't be in both places at once, and perhaps hints at a personal view of what
God is like.  No offense intended toward Jon; but I can't help believing God
has a few good laughs at some of our conceptions of Him (including, I'm sure,
some of my own).  But I hope that we agree that the day will come when the
Truth will be revealed to us, and we can cast personal prejudices aside. 

	-- David Norris        :-)
	-- uw-beaver!ssc-vax!david