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God'S Foreknowledge And His Creative Ability
If God knows all that is going to happen (from our perspective) and his will is inextricably tied to his foreknowledge. Doesn’t this imply that he is incapable of exercising creativity, isn’t this a fault ?
There’s a solution but it’s only possible after we compromise the epistemological status of foreknowledge. For God, there isn’t past, present or future. It can be described as an eternal “now”. The future doesn’t exist and God has left it open to infinite potentialities. The universe along with time is subject to divine unfolding which is ever creative. We human beings have an independent will ( limited to ourselves ) which allows us to participate in divine unfolding independently.
We must extend this principle for the past and present to remain consistent.
Is there another method to reconcile divine foreknowledge with creativity ability of God ?
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7 Replies
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God'S Foreknowledge And His Creative Ability
updated 2 years, 6 months ago
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Apart from God’s authority and ability to cause and alter the course of action, He has created the world which functions on its own under the given determination. This all is His creativity. He does not direct on every instance the relation and results of cause and effect. However, whenever and wherever He chooses, He changes the course. This is his improvisation. However, everything he created and every function which is to take place comes to His knowledge. It does not affect its creativity. Rather His absolute knowledge is another feature in His divine attributes.
The story of Moses and Khizar is the manifestation of His scheme fate and free will.
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However, whenever and wherever He chooses, He changes the course. This is his improvisation. However, everything he created and every function which is to take place comes to His knowledge.
Thanks for the response but l am afraid there’s still some ambiguity here. Does the improvisation of God follow from his foreknowledge in a predetermined fashion? If it does, then we can’t give it the label of creative intervention. Creativity by definition is open to possibilities (infinite in case of God) that haven’t been determined to occur in knowledge.
We know time doesn’t exist in reality since God is not confined by it. If time doesn’t exist, then foreknowledge is more of a storage and nothing but a sum of open infinite possibilities. The divine knowledge ( separate from foreknowledge ) of “every day/instant” is itself in flux like time and the universe, being constantly renewed in each divine disclosure “Whoever is within the heavens and earth asks Him; every day He is bringing about a matter. Of Him seeks (its need) every creature in the heavens and on earth: every day in (new) Splendour doth He (shine)! ” The past, present and the future is subject to change and God wills to disclose one possibility of the infinite possibilities contained in his storage/foreknowledge. In this way, we have to concede the past,present and future of a new disclosure isn’t predetermined.
( Divine disclosure operates outside of time in a manner we can’t understand and “every day” is just a symbol of it )
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Knowledge and happenings are two different things. If I create a program and foretells how it will function and also tell its expiry date it is still my creativity. The example is not all inclusive.
Moreover we can’t understand God as we understand things with relation to other similar things. And God has nothing parallel to understand Him.
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Interesting example but l don’t think it is applicable. The program you designed was thought out and designed with a beginning in time, not in pre-eternity. God is said to have created the universe in line with his eternal predetermined knowledge. That’s why l didn’t give any worldly example in my reasoning as it’s not possible to give any strict analogy between human working and the divine working. We get back to the same problem addressed in the opening posts and my follow up
Foreknowledge as in storage of infinite open-undetermined possibilities exists independent of happenings. However, we need to connect the divine knowledge of the instant ( every day as God describes in Quran ) with the happening, both of which are in constant flux in 1-1 correspondence
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The example is just to show that creativity with foreknowledge is possible.
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The problem is that the example is not applicable to God. I think there’s a solution that’s different and more comprehensive than the one ( and you ) have presented but it’s a bit controversial. It can be linked to Ibn Arabi. For him, God doesn’t obey the laws of contradictions. God brings together the opposite attributes which results in bewilderment. We can never worship God as he is due to our inability to know him, we only worship the God of the creed, which we have understood. If we follow this approach, your creed is correct, my creed is correct and every creed in his existence is correct ( as it tries to get close to God ). Do you agree with this approach ?
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God is One, single Reality. If he has multiple contradictory facets, is a plural God. We may have misunderstand God, but it does not change the reality. He has told about Himself in clear term in Quran and the Bible. we have to accept Him as He is.
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