Like I said, it's hard to know. And I kind of agree. I'm not a fatalist, but I also think free will is well limited and depends on how you define it.
But we do choose to get up each morning, which job to take, what to put in our mouths, and whether to see a doctor. We also choose what to spend money on. There's so many choices - millions upon millions...
The left hand/right hand argument seems a bit simple to me. Because...there's so many variables involved. Does God know which you'll choose - yes, but does that mean you don't have free will? No. Because what if he knew you'd do the opposite of what God wanted every time? It's kind of like writing a story - the writer kind of knows what the characters will do, and kind of doesn't - you can't write against your characters - well you can, but the story falls apart somewhere in there. So while you do know everything - you don't really have control over it, nor do the characters. It's hard to understand, I think, unless you've written a lot of fictional stories in your head and otherwise.
Another way of putting it? You've seen Buffy how many times? You know what every character will do. Actually while I was watching it - I knew what a lot of them would do and why - but I had no control over it. And they often did the opposite of what I wanted. Heck they did the opposite of what Whedon wanted. Whedon, the creator, the God of that verse, wanted to kill Spike in S2, but that's not how it went, he didn't have control of his own story. I see life pretty much the same way.
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But we do choose to get up each morning, which job to take, what to put in our mouths, and whether to see a doctor. We also choose what to spend money on. There's so many choices - millions upon millions...
The left hand/right hand argument seems a bit simple to me. Because...there's so many variables involved. Does God know which you'll choose - yes, but does that mean you don't have free will? No. Because what if he knew you'd do the opposite of what God wanted every time? It's kind of like writing a story - the writer kind of knows what the characters will do, and kind of doesn't - you can't write against your characters - well you can, but the story falls apart somewhere in there. So while you do know everything - you don't really have control over it, nor do the characters. It's hard to understand, I think, unless you've written a lot of fictional stories in your head and otherwise.
Another way of putting it? You've seen Buffy how many times? You know what every character will do. Actually while I was watching it - I knew what a lot of them would do and why - but I had no control over it. And they often did the opposite of what I wanted. Heck they did the opposite of what Whedon wanted. Whedon, the creator, the God of that verse, wanted to kill Spike in S2, but that's not how it went, he didn't have control of his own story. I see life pretty much the same way.