Free Will and Divine Foreknowledge Essay

Augustine discusses a critical issue which is the incompatibility of mans empty result and beau ideals foreknowledge. So the question is, do we really spend a penny disengage leave alone in spite of the fact that immortal foreknows everything? If graven image knows what must necessarily happen next, then how do have the necessitous leaveing to make our own choices? Augustine comes up with a series of rocks to prove that we unrighteousness by our own will with no intervention of the divine foreknowledge. Augustine first argued a characteristic of paragon that He has free will, and that He has foreknowledge of his own actions.Therefore, both beau ideals will and foreknowledge go along with each other. From this point he then assumes that mans will and Gods foreknowledge are both compatible. But can we compare God with man? And is this argument convincing enough? More elaboration has to be given in order to make it more than convincing. Augustine then proceeds to do so. He states that people who do non believe in the compatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge are those who are more eager to excuse than confess their sins (p. 73).That core that people who always blame others for their own wrong doings rather than admitting it are those who claim that we have no free will and that everything is already known by God, and that nothing can be changed, which they as headspring as use as a justification for their wrong actions. These people live their life by chance, going everything according to the circumstances rather than trying to steer good actions. An example for that is the beggars, who always try to take money from people without giving some(prenominal)thing in return or even having a job, although they have the might to do so.But because of their laziness and their belief that this is what they were created to be, they leave everything to happen by luck and according to Gods foreknowledge that couldnt be changed (p. 73). Augusti ne then moves to another point which is the relation between the will and the exponent to achieve that will. He states that the will itself is within our power. Therefore, our desire to commit certain acts is a power that we own. But if we will something that is not within our power then it is not considered as a will because we can only will what is within our power.Augustine then discusses that if something good happens to us then it is accordance to our will, not against it. So for example, being happy, although God foreknows that you will be so, doesnt mean that we are happy against our will. Thus, Gods foreknowledge of our happiness doesnt take away our will to be happy (p. 76). And so, he concludes that if God foreknows our will, then definitely this will is going to occur, and so it will be a will in the future. Consequently, his foreknowledge doesnt take away our will. And since that what we will is in our power, God foreknows our power and He will not take it away.Hence, w e will have that power because God foreknows it (p. 77). So Augustine made it transcend that it is necessary that whatever God has foreknown will happen, and that he foreknows our sins in such a way that our wills sojourn free and are with in our power (p. 77). However, the fact that Gods foreknowledge of our sins is consistent with our free will in sinning still stays questionable. Taking into consideration the fact that God is just, so how does He punish our sins that happen by necessity? Or is Gods foreknowledge not an obligation? The topic is still confusing so Augustine then proceeds to make it clearer.To conclude, Augustine succeeded in climax up with a good argument showing that mans free will and Gods foreknowledge are both compatible. The sequence of his ideas made his argument understandable and convincing for any reader. As a reader, Ive always thought about that subject but didnt nab any answers. However, reading On supernumerary Choice of the Will made everything cl ear for me and made me well convinced that Gods foreknowledge doesnt intervene with our own choices that we make. Works Cited Williams, Thomas. On Free Choice of the Will. Indianapolis Hackett Publishing Company