You wake in the morning
You may have a choice of which side to leave the bed
You have a choice as to what to have for breakfast
You have a choice as to whether to go to work
You have a choice as to what you do for the rest of the day
You are under no duress

Were any of your choices pre-determined?
If you got dress for work but later
Changed your mind and stay home
What was the choice in there?
Was it the dressing up, was it the change of mind?
Could anyone one have known that
You were going to dress for work
And then change your mind?

It is said God is omniscient
Could he have known about
Your choice before you?
If he knew, were you locked into
The path he set out for you?
If you were locked in by god's knowledge
Then you had no choice.
Then you had no free will.
Then free will is an illusion.

Is this a poem or a series of questions or both

It's nice sha.

Well I believe that free will is NOT an illusion. It belongs to every man. If we were to go by the last stanza of your poem, we would be made to believe that God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin before He created them. This is NOT true.

Free Will is a preference. It does not mean Do whatever you like. Is a choice i.e either this or that, free will enable you to select from two or more things with condition.

eg: ADAM & EVE were given Free WIll by God. But there was a condition given to them "Do NO EAT FROM THE TREE AT THE CENTRE" You see; they have the free will for all the fruits and other things in the beautify garden But to One tree.

FREE WILL does not mean FREEDOM. Free will always have a consequence of any will chossen. either good or bad.

FREEDOM also does not mean Out of control. Freedom means free to do a certain thing. And remember that every thing done or undone has a consequence i.e effect, result, outcome etc.

It is said God is Omniscient. Not that He determines what we do. God is not bound by time, so he has already seen what will happen. However, what ever you do is determined by you.

Think the question actually is, if God already knows what you will do, then do you really have free will?

Tasma:

Think the question actually is, if God already knows what you will do, then do you really have free will?

Tasma, thankx for restating the question. A lot of people have simply missed it.

tpaine:

Tasma, thankx for restating the question. A lot of people have simply missed it.

na wao for you. does it mean you don't know the meaning of "WHAT" how come you're thanking Tasma. A lot of people missed nothing - is you that don't understand your question. try making it better next time

God already knows what you will do

God doesnt already know what we will do.

@ tpaine

U re a smart man,u re confused,but u got to have faith to believe what i ve say, Firstly,faith is beleiving in what u cant see ,prove or figure out.Thats why i need to ask if u re a phylosopher or a scientist.If u re then dont read this cause they always need proof to beleive.

My faith preaches this, Man has been created in a hasteand we were given free will to choose from write and wrong.Thats why we are different from the angels.They dont have any choice than to obey God.They ve been created to do only good.They cant do bad and so is satan and his cohorts.they can only do evil and never good.
Thats the first stanza, check out the 2nd stanza,
God is the all knowing .He knows all thats in the deepest part of ur heart and that includes what you re going to think tommorow and forever.He knows which way u will tread and what will be.Infact ,he knows when, how and when a single leaf drops/will drop from a tree.
So , u see he is given u a free will but he knows what u re going to do.

So what do u make of that other than to keep being with him.God is the one that keeps beating u and u must keep running towards cause he is the only one that can protect you.

He already knows ur strenght and weaknessess and then tries u.9abraham----------

vanariso:

@ tpaine

You re a smart man,u re confused,but u got to have faith to believe what i ve say, Firstly,faith is beleiving in what u can't see ,prove or figure out.Thats why i need to ask if u re a phylosopher or a scientist.If u re then don't read this cause they always need proof to beleive.

My faith preaches this, Man has been created in a hasteand we were given free will to choose from write and wrong.Thats why we are different from the angels.They don't have any choice than to obey God.They ve been created to do only good.They can't do bad and so is satan and his cohorts.they can only do evil and never good.
Thats the first stanza, check out the 2nd stanza,
God is the all knowing .He knows all thats in the deepest part of your heart and that includes what you re going to think tommorow and forever.He knows which way u will tread and what will be.Infact ,he knows when, how and when a single leaf drops/will drop from a tree.
So , u see he is given u a free will but he knows what u re going to do.

So what do u make of that other than to keep being with him.God is the one that keeps beating u and u must keep running towards cause he is the only one that can protect you.

He already knows your strenght and weaknessess and then tries u.9abraham----------

Well, I trained professionally as a mathematicial and engineer but would describe myself now as an amateur philosopher.

I spotted many contradictions in your post, but let's just look at one;

You said angels can only obey god. How come Lucifer and his cohorts did not obey god and later became known as the bad guys?

The concept of freewill has to be put in perspective. Having freewill presupposes the following:
- You have options
- You are aware of the options
-You can choose which option you decide to. Choices cannot be imposed on you.
-Consequences are attached to each of the options.

Learn from the example of Ancient Israel. Even though they were God's chosen nation, he always laid bare the options to them i.e if you go this way, this is the consequence but if you choose the other, this is the consequence. Inspite of the several privileges they enjoyed as his special people, they kept sinning against him over and over again and he on the other hand kept appeasing them to make decisions dat won't hurt them. However, he did not impose any course of action on them. Infact the scriptures show he was deeply hurt by the negative reactions. That does not sound like the concept the poster was trying to put forward. We are not propelled like robots. If we weren't free moral agents, don't you think all the people in the world would just be zombie-like followers of the Maker? Instead, we are choosing our paths in life: whether to serve God or not to.

Free will is that you are free to make choices. It is an integral part of the human spirit. Free will is not incompatible with the fact that God is all knowing as tpaine seem to imply. I wonder why tpaine wants God to know of a choice that has not been made. Why will God know something when their is no something? It is like demanding that you find a book or some other object in an empty room. All knowing means that God knows of everything that exists in his creations and a choice that have not been made does not exist.

The state of freewill is the state of supremacy,control,that is the almighty,and you, if you can.Can you make it stick?

Ability to control choices.