Originally Posted by
InfoJunkie4Life
You guys really opened up a can of worms. Debates like these have been ongoing for more than a thousand years.
Here's my logical thought on the matter...
There are two roads this can go down:
1.) Theological
We find here several problems. God (Omni-potent, scient), knowing all things is thus able to predict all things, and having created all things, created our actions in which we choose. Even if you say that God only set things in motion, and you still acknowledge his omniscience then you accept that he created the precise arrangement of the universe to occur in the way in which he intended. The idea of free choice is smashed here: Knowing what's going to happen, means you cannot change it, or controlling what is to happen, resulting the same.
This does not mean that choice is altogether abolished, but rather free choice. We, in this universe, are bound by time; this means that all we do is causal, from event to event. We still have the ability to do one thing or another, however the author of the outcome is in the hands of God.
2.) Physical
All things if measured precisely enough will be 100% predictable. Everything in our universe can be attributed to cause and event. Life in this sense is a giant equation that may be able to secure predictability. Like this, there is no randomness, but just the result of a very complex action to another. Two things here may comfort us. In this result, we are still able to choose, just with a weighted outcome. As long as we don't know, we will never be on the winning side, but rather where ever we need to be.
Secondly, there is no perfect way of predicting what is to come. No matter how precise we are able to measure the equation, we will always be at a disadvantage. Like pi, there will always be more to refine.