It is the month of Ramadan and I was having some religious discussion with my friends on last Sunday. One of my friend was talking non-stop about the innards of religious faith and the rest of us were getting bored. Suddenly I got the idea of discussing an old doubt, that I had in my mind for a long time, unanswered – The Paradox of Free will.
Okay, I don’t like a lot of bla blaa blaaa… In fact I don’t know how to do blaa blaa blaaa without boring the listeners. So I am shooting the question straight, as I did on that Sunday noon. “If god knows everything, he knows what we are going to do. We are just walking the path he already made for us and hence how can he punish us for our deeds, as we did it the way he wanted us to do it?”
So here comes the question of free will. Do we really have it? Can we make decisions of our own or is it like we live our life as directed by the almighty, the all knowing.
Then comes the next part – All Knowing. If he really has the knowledge of everything, he knows how our life is going to start, how we are going to live that and how that is going to end. He is aware of the complex decision tree that we are going to traverse in our life and if his knowledge is complete in all the sense, he knows the leaf node of the tree at which our life will finally end. So if he is all knowing, we do not have free will. We are just the actors of the play written and directed by him…
If he is not all knowing, then he cannot be GOD because that is the ‘definition’ of GOD we know. Then we should not worry about him, we are living a life of our own. Then how did these things get started? The whole universe itself, I mean it is so big, it cannot just appear at one point in time. Some body created it and we can feel the presence of that ‘Some body’ in our life… I don’t know… Do you know? Then let me know…
I am a believer and I have decided the resolution for this, this way – I will try to find out the answer to this paradox in my life it self and if I couldn’t, I will ask GOD when I meet him.
So am I ready to ask the question, am I ready to meet him? Not yet… n o t y e t . . .
PS: I am not the first one to think this way, everyone get this question at some point in their life. Some are afraid of asking the question, some are not. Those who didn’t think this way yet and those who didn’t get what I meant to discuss here, they can start reading at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will
Then, the ‘definition’ of GOD differs in different religions and isms. And to Atheists it is NULL in the language of a DBA 
This is a question asked by most people at some stage of their life.
I don’t know about other religions, but Islam does have an answer for this question.
Let us first take into consideration the question:
To answer the question, consider the case of a class of students in a school. The class teacher is going to conduct an examination for the students.
Even before conducting the exam, the teacher knows which students will fail and which students will pass (from experience, of course). Even if the teacher knows the outcome of the examination, he cannot skip conducting the exam. The students will pass/fail only if the exam is conducted. Without the exam being conducted, there is no validity for the results.
Also, if the exam is not conducted, a low performing student can ask the teacher: “I would have passed if you conducted the exam!!!”
This makes it clear that it is essential to conduct the examination, even if the teacher knows the results in advance.
The same is the case with our life. Even if God knows the results, he is conducting this test to find out who will come out as good (people who searched for God’s word and lived according to his will) and who will come out as bad (people who turned the face from God’s word).
Now let us take into consideration the primary question of this post:
For answering the question let us assume that you going through a road. The road splits into three different paths at a point. Now you have to choice any of the paths. God knows which path you are going to take. This does not mean that you cannot take the path you wish. Indeed you can choose the path A, B or C as you wish. You have the free will to do that.
It is simply that God knows your choice in advance.
It is not because God knows what you will choose you are going to chose it.
It is the other way round.
It is because you chose it that God knows (in advance) that you will chose it.
God is not bound by time as we are. Simply because God knows what we are going to do does not mean that he is directing our lives. We have the free will to do anything we want. It is just that God knows our choices in advance.
On a related note, Allah says something very powerful in the beginning of Surah Anfal:
It is better not to get bored by the “innards of religious faith” as you say.
In this month of Ramadan, it is better to indulge in religious talks rather than other means of time passing.
God will not ask us how many degrees we got, but he will surely ask how much we know about him and his prophet.
He will not ask us how much salary we earned, but will ask how much we spend for the poor.
He will surely ask us how we spend our time.
He will ask us how we spend our youth.
And He will ask us how much from Quran did we read in this month of Ramadan…
Hope you are not getting bored.
As the future is not set, even if “god” knows everything that could happen, the question remains, which one will happen?
Every action every day changes the course of the future, in some tiny insignificant way, the future changes, hence a god could theoretically know everything, but at the same time, would know nothing as the actions of the people are not set.
I am an atheist, I don’t believe, but I think it is wrong to tell people their God does not exist, it would be the same as the Mormons and whatnot knocking on doors and forcing pamphlets on you in an effort to get you to join their religion.
Hello Niyaz, David. Thank you for sharing your comments!
David, the problem is that, knowledge of God is ‘Complete’ in all senses possible. It means that he knows “everything that could happen” and “which one will happen” which makes the future preset. If his knowledge is not complete, then there may exist a thing or a force whose knowledge is complete and that force will be superior to God and it will disqualify him to be God. So if God knows everything then our future is set and if he doesn’t he cannot be God.
I am not trying to say that God doesn’t exist. Instead I am trying to find the answer for a complicated question. And I am not an atheist yet. I like to believe. Once, one of my physics professors – who is an atheist – told me, “I don’t believe in God or I don’t believe he exists. But it will be better if he really exists”
Niyaz, I don’t know why but all the people – the wise – have told me the example of the ‘teacher and the class’ when ever I asked this question. Interesting, isn’t it. But there is a fundamental difference in the example you have given and the situation in my question and the difference is that the knowledge is not complete in the case of the teacher and it is in the case of God. Then God is directly responsible for the skills of people because they are his creation totally. A student on the other hand is not a complete creation of the teacher; he just shows them the way to knowledge. The teacher doesn’t possess ‘Complete’ or Perfect knowledge about the result of the exam. If he does then he can go and help the students who are going to fail and he can change the future. I think the answer I gave to David answers your question too. And my opinion is that ‘the student-teacher example’ should not be used to explain the problem.
And in he second example of ‘the roads’, again, the problem is that, he knows where your journey is going to end in advance. Then what choice do you have. So if I am going o do a sin, God knows that I am going to do that and hence I don’t want to disappoint him by not doing it because if I do so I am proving him wrong and he may be angry at me for that, for not committing sin. Isn’t it
Faiz,
I repeat:
God is not bound by time as we are. Simply because God KNOWS what we are going to do does not mean that he is directing our lives. We have the free will to do anything we want. It is just that God knows our choices in advance.
Niyaz,
It has nothing to with that he is controlling our lives. It is that we do not have any control over it, for it is already known. If God knows our choices in advance there is no free will. If God KNOWS EXACTLY what you will do, there is no chance that you can do otherwise. Because of Gods knowledge being perfect, what he know in advance will happen. If we had free will we could choose to do otherwise, but then Gods knowledge would not be perfect.
Nice discussion Niyaz.
Atheist here.
Another point to ask yourself would be about god’s own free will.
If god is all knowing, he cannot have free will, because he will know all choices that he himself will make.
therefore the god described from the major 3 religions cannot exist the way it is described.
Err, I meant Faiz
Nice thinking Bert! But you are a little confused here. There is a basic difference. In this case, apart from the case of free will of human beings, the ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ is done by God himself. He is totally in control. As far as our case is considered, we are always worried about whether we are really in control of our decisions and deeds or not. If the choice we have is controlled by a superior power (such as nature or God) or not. He need not worry that way. He is in control, because he is almighty too and not only all-knowing. He is superior to all the powers and all that is created. If one is all-knowing and almighty at the same time, I believe that he needs no free will or he already has free will. Free will is about if we have a choice or not. For God, it’s like getting up in the morning, planning what to do that day and just doing it. He knows that everything will happen exactly the way he chose it
“If god is all knowing, he cannot have free will, because he will know all choices that he himself will make.”
This statement is based on the premise that God is constrained by TIME as we are, which is wrong.
God created TIME, and we don’t know if the concept of free will is valid in a world without TIME.
Also, God never changes his mind. He always does things according to his grand plan. So there is no paradox of free will here. God neve does un-Godly things. So there is no chance of him doing something and then thinking like: “Oh. I was wrong. I should try the other way”.
Google: limited free will sovereign sproul
Surprised by Suffering – Google Books Result
by R. C. Sproul – 1994
“To be sure, men have free will but our free will is limited. It is always limited by God’s free will. God’s free will is a sovereign free will.”
http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/evil-log.htm
Mackie admits that Plantinga’s defense shows how God and evil can co-exist, that is, it shows that “the central doctrines of theism” are logically consistent after all.
If you presuppose the transcendence of God over time, which most western religions do, there is absolutely no contradiction between free will and Divine Omniscience.
God knows what you have done because, from “his” perspective, you have already done it. It is only when we ascribe OUR linear experience of time to God do we achieve a paradox. Otherwise, it is the same as asking if your knowledge of what you did yesterday precludes your own free will.
Since, for a transcendent God, the creation of the world is the culmination of all time, you actions aren’t “forseen” – they are coexistent with the “moment” of creation in time-space.
I find the entire debate of God and free will to be nothing but semantics.
Free will only indicates the lack of knowledge of one’s future. Any knowledge of future proceedings entirely negates free will, because of the simple fact that a world with or without free will is identical with hindsight.
Did you choose what you did yesterday, or was it already chosen for you without your knowledge?
The two scenarios are entirely indiscernible.
മലയാളമാണു എനിക്കു നല്ലതെന്നു തോന്നുന്നു.
എനിക്കു മനസ്സിലായതു.
ദൈവം എല്ലാമറിയാന് കഴിവുള്ളവനാണു. ദൈവത്തിന്റെ തീരുമാനമനുസരിച്ചാണ് ലോകക്രമം. നമ്മള് പ്രവര്ത്തിക്കുന്നതും മറച്ചു വെക്കുന്നതും അവനറിയുന്നു. നമ്മളുടെ ഭാവിയില് നമ്മളെടുക്കാന് പോകുന്ന തീരുമാനം അവനറിയാന് കഴിയുമെങ്കില് കൂടി, തീരുമാനമെടുക്കുന്നതില് അവനെ ഭരമേല്പ്പിച്ചവരുടെ/അവന് ഭാരമേറ്റവരുടെ തീരുമാനങ്ങളിലല്ലാതെ അവന് കയ്കടത്തില്ല. അവനില് ഭരമേല്പ്പിച്ച- അവന് ആ ഭാരം ഏറ്റടുത്തവര്ക്കു നേര്വഴി അവന് കാണിച്ചു കൊടുക്കും. അല്ലാത്തവര് നേര്വഴി സ്വയം കണ്ടെത്തണം. വേദ ഗ്രന്ധങ്ങളും പ്രവാചകന്മാരുമാണു നേര്വഴിക്കുള്ള മാതൃകകള്.
നമ്മളുടെ ജനനവും മരണവും നേരുത്തേ തീരുമാനിക്കപ്പെട്ടതു തന്നെ. എന്നാല് പ്രാര്ത്ഥനകള് മൂലം നല്ല മനുഷ്യര്ക്കും, പാപത്തിന്റെ അളവു കൂട്ടത്തക്ക വിധത്തില് പാപികള്ക്കും പടച്ചവന് അവന്റെയിഷ്ടമനുസരിച്ചു മരണത്തിനുള്ള അവധികള് നീട്ടി നല്കിയേക്കും എന്നു ചിലയിടത്തു കണ്ടിട്ടുണ്ട്. മനുഷ്യനെ എപ്പോള് തിരിച്ചു വിളിക്കണമെന്ന് തീരുമാനിക്കുന്നവന് അവനാണെന്നര്ത്ഥം. എന്നാല് ഒരുവന്റെ ജീവിതത്തില് തീരുമാനങ്ങളെടുക്കാനുള്ള സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം മനുഷ്യനുണ്ട്. ദൈവം പരീക്ഷണത്തിനായി ചില സാഹചര്യങ്ങളൊരുക്കുമെന്നതാണ് മറ്റൊന്നു. ചില കാര്യങ്ങള് നമുക്കു നല്ലതായി വരും. മറ്റു ചിലവ മോശമായും. ആ നല്ലതും ചീത്തയും ദൈവത്തില് നിന്നും വരുന്നതാണെന്നു വിശ്വസിച്ചു അതിനോട് പ്രതികരിക്കുകയാണ് മനുഷ്യന്റെ നിയോഗം. പ്രാര്ത്ഥന സ്വീകരിക്കപ്പെട്ടാല് അവന് നമ്മുടെമേല് പരീക്ഷിക്കാന് ഉദ്ദേശിച്ചിരുന്ന പല മോശം അവസ്ഥകളെയും പിന്വലിച്ചേക്കും. പ്രാര്ത്ഥിക്കാന് മുതിരുന്നതു നന്നാവാന് താല്പര്യമുള്ളവരും കുറച്ചെങ്കിലും അവനെ മനസ്സിലാക്കിയവരുമായിരിക്കും എന്നതാണു മറ്റൊരു വസ്തുത.
@Issac: Isn’t it the concept of determinism :S ?
@Irshad: If he knows what we are going to do, then what can we do against his will and why we should be held responsible for that? PS: Please try to use English, next time, so that non-keralites can also follow…
God already created hell and paradise for people and decided some criteria to recruitment person for that. He published that criteria through secret scriptures like quran, bible etc. Who meet that criteria through their life will get the appropriate one.
God knows all the thing including what will be we do next. Please Consider that God already provided good directions to all. So he is not responsible, if we didn’t try to understand that and making mistake. Our activities may be against his hope. But it is not against his will. He can simply direct us in his own way, If he have a will in our activity.
PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF ALLAH (SWT) TO AN ATHEIST
by Dr. Zakir Naik
CONGRATULATING AN ATHEIST
Normally, when I meet an atheist, the first thing I like to do is to congratulate him and say, ” My special congratulations to you”, because most of the people who believe in God are doing blind belief – he is a Christian, because his father is a Christian; he is a Hindu, because his father is a Hindu; the majority of the people in the world are blindly following the religion of their fathers. An atheist, on the other hand, even though he may belong to a religious family, uses his intellect to deny the existence of God; what ever concept or qualities of God he may have learnt in his religion may not seem to be logical to him.
My Muslim brothers may question me, “Zakir, why are you congratulating an atheist?” The reason that I am congratulating an atheist is because he agrees with the first part of the Shahada i.e. the Islamic Creed, ‘La ilaaha’ – meaning ‘there is no God’.
So half my job is already done; now the only part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah. With others (who are not atheists) I have to first remove from their minds the wrong concept of God they may have and then put the correct concept of one true God.
LOGICAL CONCEPT OF GOD
My first question to the atheist will be: “What is the definition of God?” For a person to say there is no God, he should know what is the meaning of God. If I hold a book and say that ‘this is a pen’, for the opposite person to say, ‘it is not a pen’, he should know what is the definition of a pen, even if he does not know nor is able to recognise or identify the object I am holding in my hand. For him to say this is not a pen, he should at least know what a pen means. Similarly for an atheist to say ‘there is no God’, he should at least know the concept of God. His concept of God would be derived from the surroundings in which he lives. The god that a large number of people worship has got human qualities – therefore he does not believe in such a god. Similarly a Muslim too does not and should not believe in such false gods.
If a non-Muslim believes that Islam is a merciless religion with something to do with terrorism; a religion which does not give rights to women; a religion which contradicts science; in his limited sense that non-Muslim is correct to reject such Islam. The problem is he has a wrong picture of Islam. Even I reject such a false picture of Islam, but at the same time, it becomes my duty as a Muslim to present the correct picture of Islam to that non-Muslim i.e. Islam is a merciful religion, it gives equal rights to the women, it is not incompatible with logic, reason and science; if I present the correct facts about Islam, that non-Muslim may Inshallah accept Islam.
Similarly the atheist rejects the false gods and the duty of every Muslim is to present the correct concept of God which he shall Insha Allah not refuse.
(You may refer to my article, ‘Concept of God in Islam’, for more details)
QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE
The methods of proving the existence of God with usage of the material provided in the ‘Concept of God in Islam’ to an atheist may satisfy some but not all.
Many atheists demand a scientific proof for the existence of God. I agree that today is the age of science and technology. Let us use scientific knowledge to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. to prove the existence of God and simultaneously prove that the Qur’an is a revelation of God.
If a new object or a machine, which no one in the world has ever seen or heard of before, is shown to an atheist or any person and then a question is asked, ” Who is the first person who will be able to provide details of the mechanism of this unknown object? After little bit of thinking, he will reply, ‘the creator of that object.’ Some may say ‘the producer’ while others may say ‘the manufacturer.’ What ever answer the person gives, keep it in your mind, the answer will always be either the creator, the producer, the manufacturer or some what of the same meaning, i.e. the person who has made it or created it. Don’t grapple with words, whatever answer he gives, the meaning will be same, therefore accept it.
SCIENTIFIC FACTS MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN: for details on this subject please refer to my book, ‘THE QUR’AN AND MODERN SCIENCE – COMPATIBLE OR INCOMPATIBLE?
THEORY OF PROBABILITY
[--------------------- Trimmed by Faiz ----------------------]
Let us apply this theory of probability to the Qur’an, and assume that a person has guessed all the information that is mentioned in the Qur’an which was unknown at that time. Let us discuss the probability of all the guesses being simultaneously correct.
At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, people thought the world was flat, there are several other options for the shape of the earth. It could be triangular, it could be quadrangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, spherical, etc. Lets assume there are about 30 different options for the shape of the earth. The Qur’an rightly says it is spherical, if it was a guess the chances of the guess being correct is 1/30.
The light of the moon can be its own light or a reflected light. The Qur’an rightly says it is a reflected light. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/2 and the probability that both the guesses i.e the earth is spherical and the light of the moon is reflected light is 1/30 x 1/2 = 1/60.
Further, the Qur’an also mentions every living thing is made of water. Every living thing can be made up of either wood, stone, copper, aluminum, steel, silver, gold, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, oil, water, cement, concrete, etc. The options are say about 10,000. The Qur’an rightly says that everything is made up of water. If it is a guess, the chances that it will be correct is 1/10,000 and the probability of all the three guesses i.e. the earth is spherical, light of moon is reflected light and everything is created from water being correct is 1/30 x 1/2 x 1/10,000 = 1/60,000 which is equal to about .0017%.
The Qur’an speaks about hundreds of things that were not known to men at the time of its revelation. Only in three options the result is .0017%. I leave it upto you, to work out the probability if all the hundreds of the unknown facts were guesses, the chances of all of them being correct guesses simultaneously and there being not a single wrong guess. It is beyond human capacity to make all correct guesses without a single mistake, which itself is sufficient to prove to a logical person that the origin of the Qur’an is Divine.
CREATOR IS THE AUTHOR OF THE QUR’AN
The only logical answer to the question as to who could have mentioned all these scientific facts 1400 years ago before they were discovered, is exactly the same answer initially given by the atheist or any person, to the question who will be the first person who will be able to tell the mechanism of the unknown object. It is the ‘CREATOR’, the producer, the Manufacturer of the whole universe and its contents. In the English language He is ‘God’, or more appropriate in the Arabic language, ‘ALLAH’.
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[Al-Quran 41:53]
http://irf.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136&Itemid=154
As per Islamic ponit of view ALLAH, already created Two ways for mankind, Chice is upto them. We have full freedom to select, the way we should go.
But as Greator of entire Univrse& it’s Sustainer He will have full knowledge who else will chose thr right/wrong.
It is a work of mind, and nobody compelling us what we should chose.
moreover Humen beings are of “VERY” little knowledge about functioning of This entire system. Our mind is too week to understand all these.
We should set some Basic believe, in order that we will have a Happy life Here and Hereafter.
more explanation to follow…
Sidheeq and Manaf, Thank you for your efforts.
@Sidheeq: “So half my job is already done; now the only part left is ‘il lallah’ i.e. ‘BUT ALLAH’ which I shall do Insha Allah” – Zakir Naik never explained how he convinces the Atheist for the second part of Shahaadat kalima, how he is going to convince that there is a God and that is Allah.
The scientific facts explained in Quran were explained by Greeks even before (I haven’t finished verifying this yet). So, that claim doesn’t help to prove that Quran is a divine text.
I have gone through almost all of Zakir’s talks and I have tried contacting him to get an answer for my question. He didn’t respond to my emails. May be he is too busy.
Again, none of the transcripts that you have posted here help to answer my question. You are trying to feed tons of information in my blog which is not going to help any. This is rather spamming and please do not do that. I have deleted a comment of yours and removed non-relevant portions from the shown comment.
I have been following this thread for quite a while now just because I found this topic very interesting.
‘If God created you and me and if God knows everything’ then – He knows the evil inside me even before I am born. If I kill someone he knows that already. And if someone else is killing me for this reason then he knows that too already. And if the law orders to hang this third person then again he knows that already. And he knows that too that all the near and dear ones of these three will be the sufferers (directly or indirectly). Then why did he ever create me in the first place? Just to make up this show?
Let’s say an answer for this question now – he created me in the first place because he wanted to teach others what evil is. Alright. Now suppose we have learned what evil is. Then naturally I assume that he is not going to teach the same lesson over and over again. He is not supposed to create another three with the same inclination as the above. And if he is creating another three (which is what’s always happening as we can see!) then why did he ever make that show for the first time? Every time trying to increase the list of sufferers..? And what these sufferers do? An endless call for God to help them.. (In other words I find it as a means by which God creating new innovative ideas every time to increase his subscriber list!)
You and me were happy in the beginning when we were ignorant of what ‘evil’ is. Then he created the three to teach what evil is. And repeatedly doing the same (considering he knows everything). Result is nothing better than a bunch of whiners which I think is never a way to create a happy world.
Now let’s go the other way – Every human is a finite creature and God becomes God because we think he is infinite (as what we consider). And we can’t define or determine infinity too. Now I think the finiteness in me is drawn by myself. So what if I as a human can extend the limits of my finiteness.. Or in other words if I see God in me and in you and in thousands of people around us, then God is omnipresent. When I see the same God inside you, I am naturally extending my boundaries of finiteness. And the same is happening with you. When the boundaries of my finiteness cannot be defined I am naturally becoming infinite and so are you. So who is God? you and me. (Though there are many points that confuse me in this, in simple words I consider it like this… and trying to find an answer to clear the other confusions)
I don’t know if every religion is saying the same. (Because I am not that much learned about EVERY religion.) But I believe its directly or indirectly saying the same. (And that’s what it’s supposed to teach. And it would have been better if that happens so properly)
About Dr.Zakir’s talk… There is no need for me to comment on this now. But I felt a relevant point in this that I can say here. That was a wonderful question asked by that girl and sorry to say this that I felt the answer as ‘senseless’… or his answer didn’t convince me. In fact I never felt that she is an atheist! I believe everything that she said is what God (if he is there) would have wished for everyone to know and follow. Teaching the goodness in every religion and to follow the real God inside you..
PS: (you and me mentioned in this is not exactly you and me.)
I consider myself as a believer. (And if my beliefs are classified for a non-believer it can’t be helped!)
(to make my comment clear..)
Q: “is it possible for God and Free will to exist together.”
A: I believe it’s possible and the possibility comes into effect as we go extending our bounds of finiteness. Then you (as God) are determining yourself and its freewill.
But as such we can’t logically prove or disprove pre-determinism (or still ignorant of it). But I believe that confusion can be cleared as we go more and more towards infinity.
Nyaz your first comment with the teacher example really makes no sense.
Experience cannot tell the teacher who will pass and who will fail, it may allow for prediction, but not a definite answer. Therefore, they must give the students the test.
Your question actually asks whether the universe is deterministic or not. If universe is deterministic, then there is no freewill, otherwise there is. So let me try to explain about the deterministic nature of universe.
There is subroutine called random() or its equivalent in most of the programming languages. Hope you know about it. Is that really random? No, it is not. It is actually predictable. But nobody has ever complained about the randomness of those routines. Why? I shall come to it later.
Have you ever gone to casinos in Vegas? Gambling game machines over there are deterministic. Why don’t you become a billionaire either by gambling or by suing them for their predictable games? Let me explain it now.
It’s nothing but simple mathematics.
1/x is finite provided x ≠ 0; similarly 1/x ≠ 0 provided x is finite
This can be expressed in a different way using limits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_(mathematics)) as,
lim (x→∞) (1/x)=0 and lim (x→0) (1/x)=∞;
This means even though 1/x cannot be 0 or ∞, it can be considered as 0, ∞ when x is moving towards ∞ and 0 respectively. In the same way we can explain the nature of universe.
Take universe as a system and U as a function to explain the state of universe. U(t) gives the state of universe at any time t. Now consider another function C, which gives the count of possible state changes to the system.
That is C(“coin flipping”) = 2.
If U(t) can change its state to U1, U2, .., Un then C(U) = n.
Consider another function T, which decides the nature of system. T can have two values ‘Deterministic’ or ‘Nondeterministic’. Then following rules are applicable for each finite system x,
lim (C(x)→0) T(x) = Deterministic
lim (C(x)→∞) T(x) = Nondeterministic
Note: There can be system with finite number of state changes and still nondeterministic. For example, if system is defined as S = Square root of x it can have only two values. But still it is nondeterministic. But when a deterministic system is having infinite number of possible state changes its nature is moving towards nondeterministic. That is an infinite state machine can act as nondeterministic even though it is deterministic.
Now considering the system universe U, then C(U) ≈ ∞.
lim (C(U)→∞) T(U) = Nondeterministic
Uncertainty in universe is high. In thermodynamics the amount of this uncertainty or measure of how disorganized a system is called entropy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy). Entropy is nothing but the randomness of a system.
Now, why nobody has ever complained about random routine or games at Vegas, it is because both these systems are nondeterministic enough. Similarly the universe is nondeterministic enough to human. Putting in other words, human can scientifically believe in his freewill till the invention of a system that can predict future.
Finally, if there is an external system that could realize the universe as a deterministic system, then that system can predict the future because it’s possible to predict the future of a deterministic system. If such a system is there, you may call it God even though it is hard to prove existence/non existence of God in this way.
Quoting few texts from your link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will).
Historically, the constraint of dominant concern has been the metaphysical constraint of determinism. The opposing positions within that debate are metaphysical libertarianism, the claim that determinism is false and thus that free will exists; and hard determinism, the claim that determinism is true and thus that free will does not exist.
Here the real question is whether determinism exists or not. There are two views for this; view of religion and vie of science.
1. Religious:
I can explain the religious view in Islam (I don’t have more idea about other religions than in wiki). Islam says Freewill exists in universe. Following are two verses of Quran explains Freewill of human.
32:13
وَلَوۡ شِئۡنَا لَأَتَيۡنَا كُلَّ نَفۡسٍ هُدَٮٰهَا وَلَـٰكِنۡ حَقَّ
ٱلۡقَوۡلُ مِنِّى لَأَمۡلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ ٱلۡجِنَّةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ أَجۡمَعِينَ
But they are not aware that if it was Our desire to coerce them to the right path by showing them suffering and chastisement, then it was not at all difficult for Us. They would have been born to follow the right course by themselves. They would have had no capability of disobedience. However, this would have been against Our Law, which has provided human beings with the faculty of choice and discretion. We do not want to make them tread the right path by depriving them of their choice. There is no credit in going on the right path, if one is forced on to it.
We have shown both ways to human beings (76:3). One leads to suffering and the other to peace and it is left to him to choose the path he likes. People however, whether they are civilized or nomads, normally take the erroneous path and fall into the ‘jahannum’ of suffering and destruction. Thus Our Law of Mukafat confronts them as a reality.
76:3
إِنَّا هَدَيۡنَـٰهُ ٱلسَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرً۬ا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا
It is because of this faculty of seeing and hearing (of intellect and reason). that he was not forced to adopt a particular set course, like that of the rest of the universe. He was given the discretion to select any one of the courses open to him. While his faculties can select a path, they cannot ensure that the selected course is also the right one. This can only be done by the Wahi. Hence Allah Almighty the Almighty guided him to the right way through Wahi; and then left him free to either adopt the right course or to deny it. That is why he is held responsible for his deeds, which are worthy of either reward or punishment.
2. Science:
I guess Science is still in confusion regarding the deterministic nature of universe. Classic theory explains the universe as deterministic. Classical physics includes Newton’s laws of motion, Classical electrodynamics, thermodynamics, the Special theory of relativity, the General theory of relativity, chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics.
But currently science doubts about the existence of some non-deterministic behavior in Quantum Mechanics(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics).
Please see the comparison of interpretations by different scientists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics#Comparison).
Albert Einstein, himself one of the founders of quantum theory, disliked this loss of determinism in measurement (this dislike is the source of his famous quote, “God does not play dice with the universe.”).
The quantum mind(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mind) or quantum consciousness hypothesis proposes that classical mechanics cannot fully explain consciousness, and suggests that quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement) and superposition, may play an important part in the brain’s function, and could form the basis of an explanation of consciousness.
My Conclusion:
If these uncertainties are only predictable by God, then we can say the Freewill exists, The God is omniscient.
According to me, if God is omnipotent he can definitely create a universe having Freewill.
Regarding scientific miracles of the Quran:
I am surprised how much lies Muslims are spreading that many people believe in these lies as facts.
one clear example:
Muslims claim that the Quran said that the moon doesn’t produce it’s light but reflects it… And they say that the word “Moneera” means that it is reflecting the light. But I have searched all old books of Tafsir, all Arabic dictioniaries and I never found anything relating the word “Moneera” to the meaning “reflecting” … the most common meaning I found was: {{God made the moon “Monnera”}} god made the moon like a bulb which will help people find their ways. Moneera means immanating lighht, I am an Arab and I am sure of this.. SO HOW COME Muslim twist the words meanings?
the same thing applies to the earth, Quran says in many ayyas that God made the earth flat, and Quran actually uses the word “flat”.. but when muslims knew the earth is not flat, they changed the meaning of the words.. for example :
{{God “basata” the earth}} and basata means made it flat.
{{God “dahaha” the earth}} and dahaha means made it flat, until some decades when the muslims changed the meaning of the word, since there is a similar word in Arabic which is “odheya” which means egg (the roots of the two words are similar).. so the muslims say now that god meant he made the earth like an egg and now they claim Quran said the truth about the earth shape, which is totally irrelevant..
Regarding Free will in Islam…….
Muslims says we have Free Will…
but let’s read in the Quran:
When we{gof} want to destroy a town, We{god} order the noble people in that town so that they sin, and then it is turn, and We{god} will destroy it totally and wipe it out
So here is what the Quran is saying about God(in simple words):
God decides to destroy something for unclear reason
God orders the people to do bad things
God is then angry because the people did what he ordered them to do
@Khaled: Really appreciate your efforts. It will be a little more helpful if you can provide the exact chapter:verse numbers in Quran so that people can go and verify themselves.