Since G-d knows the future, what choice do we have in it?
The Short Answer:
This argument is the easiest to deal with: Knowing what someone is going to do is not synonymous with making that person do it. This is simple to understand.
A Little Longer:
In the Mishnah (Ethics of the Fathers 3:15), Rabbi Akiva says it straight out: "Everything is foreseen, and free choice is granted." The classic commentaries don't have a problem with that. Allow me to paraphrase their very simple explanation:
If I see a child in front of an ice cream and tell you he's going to eat it, does that mean I made him eat it? Let's say a psychologist predicts that a certain criminal, if released, will murder again. And it happens. Do we lock up the psychologist or the criminal? Of course not. The psychologist's knowledge had no involvement in the criminal's act of murder.
Similarly, if someone came back from the future in a time machine and told you what was going to happen to the world, does that mean he is responsible for all that happens from that point on? G-d knows what you are going to do because He is beyond time. For Him, it all happened already. So, how does that imply that He denies us free choice to make those decisions?
In other words, knowledge of the future is a result of the events of the future, not their cause. In G-d's super-temporal realm, the result can exist before the cause. But it's still a result and not a cause.
Now, if you will say that all that is true with us human beings, but with G-d, isn't it His knowledge that creates all things? -- then I suggest you read on as we discuss the relationship of G-d's knowledge to this world in the following sections.
On to the next question:
G-d wants something to happen and it happens. So how could I possibly choose to do something He doesn't like? Who's more powerful, after all?
The Paradox of Free Choice - Six Questions
1) Determinism: Isnt everything predetermined by the mechanics of the universe?
2) Robotism: G-d knew exactly what I was going to do when He made me this way. Im just a programmed machine. How can I be blamed for being what I am?
3) Prescience: Since G-d knows the future, what choice do we have in it?
4) Omnipotence: G-d wants something to happen and it happens. So how could I possibly choose to do something He doesnt like? Whos more powerful, after all?
5) Oneness: Since there is nothing else but His Oneness, what room is left for us to make any difference?
6) Primal Cause: If G-d is the Primal Cause, doesnt the buck stop there?
