I quite deliberately did not define it as "able to do anything which is not logically impossible", my arguement is that logic impossiblities are not things, they are nonentities, they are nonsenses. Both statements resolve down to the same thing from your position. God is unable to do something because he is constrained by the system of logic. I would argue that a stronger definition of omnipotence (the first point in the linked Wikipedia entry) would be that he is able to change / 'exists somehow outside of' (*cough*) / something the system of logic that we are constrained by.
I think I'll need you to tell me what this free will is you speak of before I answer such a question (also would be nice to know in your view of the world, do you think you have it now?) A highly interesting question :0) I'm not sure I have a good definition, but it would seem to be something like: "Something is said to have free will when it has the ability make choices"
Some choices (for instance choosing to no longer have gravity available to me) are possible but cannot be acted out due to physical limitations, others (deciding to love a person) needn't even result in a physical action.
It could be argued that our free will is limited to a large degree by our environment, perhaps this is true - if so then we have less free will in such an environment. I don't agree with this defintion though as we can will something without being able to act upon it.
The heaven problem is rather thorny because even if I am entirely unable to act upon my sinful willful choice it still exists within my head/soul/core program - and as we all know sinful thoughts are just as bad as sinful actions.
Then there is the old Christian chesnut that God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose (freedom of will) in the garden of evil because that is a prerequisite of love, without choice they are robots as they love him purely because they have no other choice and so the love is meaningless. This falls to pieces both because it doesn't deal with the obvious question of how all this relates to the angels (and specifically Satan who decided to rebel against God and so therefore presumably also has free will), and if people are transformed such that they cannot sin in heaven then that ability to choose has been taken from them and so although perhaps they have free will in other respects (choosing what colour socks to wear for instance) they certainly don't have the ability to love God anymore.
Re: This year's CICCU Main Event - DIRECTION
Both statements resolve down to the same thing from your position. God is unable to do something because he is constrained by the system of logic. I would argue that a stronger definition of omnipotence (the first point in the linked Wikipedia entry) would be that he is able to change / 'exists somehow outside of' (*cough*) / something the system of logic that we are constrained by.
I think I'll need you to tell me what this free will is you speak of before I answer such a question (also would be nice to know in your view of the world, do you think you have it now?)
A highly interesting question :0) I'm not sure I have a good definition, but it would seem to be something like:
"Something is said to have free will when it has the ability make choices"
Some choices (for instance choosing to no longer have gravity available to me) are possible but cannot be acted out due to physical limitations, others (deciding to love a person) needn't even result in a physical action.
It could be argued that our free will is limited to a large degree by our environment, perhaps this is true - if so then we have less free will in such an environment. I don't agree with this defintion though as we can will something without being able to act upon it.
The heaven problem is rather thorny because even if I am entirely unable to act upon my sinful willful choice it still exists within my head/soul/core program - and as we all know sinful thoughts are just as bad as sinful actions.
Then there is the old Christian chesnut that God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to choose (freedom of will) in the garden of evil because that is a prerequisite of love, without choice they are robots as they love him purely because they have no other choice and so the love is meaningless. This falls to pieces both because it doesn't deal with the obvious question of how all this relates to the angels (and specifically Satan who decided to rebel against God and so therefore presumably also has free will), and if people are transformed such that they cannot sin in heaven then that ability to choose has been taken from them and so although perhaps they have free will in other respects (choosing what colour socks to wear for instance) they certainly don't have the ability to love God anymore.