Yes, I think this is a can of worms in any case.
Regarding (1), yes, it is all a stew of internal and external causes.
I walk down a path and I am startled and jump. Was the causing agent intelligent or not? A branch fell, or a human jumped out and said "boo!" The former would mean my jump was MY free will, and the latter would include the other person's free will because they chose to startle me. In either case, my jumping was instinct and not really "free will", but the direction I jumped could be a free will decision. So in this simple scenario there are already several contributors to a single action.
So without dissecting "free will" down to a molecular level, I would prefer to think of it as a carefully-considered decision by made an individual, with the freedom to act on that decision - as well as other decisions he could have made.
Regarding (2), God's omniscience can't be the deciding factor. Did God force you to walk down path A instead of path B, or does He only observe your decision? I can read someone's comprehensive autobiography and know every decision they ever made. Does my knowledge negate the freedom of those decisions? If the decisions were internal ones then they were freely made - and they will remain freely-made decisions after the person had written his book and he no longer exists. The only factor being introduced here is observance.
So I submit: If an omniscient God exists outside of time, then He must know future events with certainty. But that knowledge does not negate free will.
Regarding (1), yes, it is all a stew of internal and external causes.
I walk down a path and I am startled and jump. Was the causing agent intelligent or not? A branch fell, or a human jumped out and said "boo!" The former would mean my jump was MY free will, and the latter would include the other person's free will because they chose to startle me. In either case, my jumping was instinct and not really "free will", but the direction I jumped could be a free will decision. So in this simple scenario there are already several contributors to a single action.
So without dissecting "free will" down to a molecular level, I would prefer to think of it as a carefully-considered decision by made an individual, with the freedom to act on that decision - as well as other decisions he could have made.
Regarding (2), God's omniscience can't be the deciding factor. Did God force you to walk down path A instead of path B, or does He only observe your decision? I can read someone's comprehensive autobiography and know every decision they ever made. Does my knowledge negate the freedom of those decisions? If the decisions were internal ones then they were freely made - and they will remain freely-made decisions after the person had written his book and he no longer exists. The only factor being introduced here is observance.
So I submit: If an omniscient God exists outside of time, then He must know future events with certainty. But that knowledge does not negate free will.
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