God Reflection Paper

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Recommended: The debate over free will

There are countless aspects that we could attribute to God. That he is eternal, immutable, infinite, the list goes on and on. However, one attribute of God that I found to be the most interesting and overall shocking to ask is whether we as humans have free will if God knows all things. This question has forever been a sense of conflict in my eyes, if God knew all things and knew how I would react in every situation then what is the point of this life? What then is the point to even believe in a God that would knowingly send me out into this world already knowing exactly how I would react to every situation? Boethius confronts this question with his consolation of philosophy; during this paper I will analyze Boethius’s argument as to why …show more content…

If we as people have the ability to make a choice wholly dependent upon us without the intervention of something else then that is a free choice. Once that choice has been chosen we have acted in a free way. However, God knew we would make this decision because he sees all things through his eternality and existence outside of time. This idea is comforting yet terrifying at the same time. It is comforting in the fact that I am indeed a free individual however it is terrifying because there is something out there who knows all the decisions I will make throughout my entire life. Boethius has impacted my beliefs in an interesting manner. I always had trouble thinking that I did not have free will and it was by divine intervention that I was here to serve a purpose. I am very much an existentialist in that manner. I believe that we do not have purpose before existence we find our own purpose. In light of Boethius I am terribly conflicted in my self-understanding of God. Thinking about this ideal that God sees all things he then would know what giving humanity free will would do. It has caused countless atrocities and suffering, how then can free will truly be a good thing? To question whether free will is a good thing is a terribly confusing idea that has arisen within me. Therefore it is in my opinion that in the context of Boethius’s term of eternity free will is possible. However, it slightly cheapens the sense of free will because God already knows all things so even though our choices are our own they have been predetermined in a sense. Further, to say that God does not have sight of all things past, present, and future would dilute his perfection. Largely what Boethius has done for my beliefs in accordance with the ideal that God sees all things is to now reject

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