I don’t think that the concept of an omniscient god is compatible with the concept of free will. Here’s why.
First, some definitions.
Omniscience is the attribute of possessing complete and unlimited knowledge. An omniscient being knows everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen. This includes all events, decisions, and actions of all creatures throughout time.
Free will is the ability to choose (will) between different possible courses of action unimpeded (free). It implies that individuals have can make choices that are genuinely their own, not determined by prior causes or divine intervention.
Now, onto why the two are incompatible.
First, omniscience implies predetermined knowledge. In other words, if God is omniscient, then God knows all our future actions.
For God to be omniscience , they must have complete knowledge of future events, encompassing every choice we will ever make.
Second, predetermined knowledge implies necessity. If God knows all our future actions, then those actions must necessarily occur as God knows them.
For God’s knowledge to be omniscient, it must be perfect and cannot be wrong, meaning that your future choices are, in some sense, fixed.
Third, necessity contradicts free will. If our actions are necessary and cannot be otherwise, then we don’t have the ability to choose freely. Thus, we do not possess free will.
Free will, by definition, requires the ability to choose between genuine alternatives. If our actions are predetermined and must occur as God knows them, then it appears we lack the genuine ability to choose otherwise, undermining the concept of free will.
For instance, if God knows that you will choose to eat cereal for breakfast tomorrow, it seems that the choice is already set in stone and you can’t truly choose otherwise without negating God’s omniscience.
The argument works the other way, too. If we do, indeed, have free will—if we actually can choose to eat cereal for breakfast tomorrow—then God can’t be omniscient. At least not in the strictest meaning of the word.
As a result, I believe we must choose whether to believe in an omniscient God or whether to believe in free will.
