Morbert wrote: » I see no problem in asserting it is by our will that x=1 if we are allowed to assume our spirit is supernatural.
Morbert wrote: » The existence of both x and our will is determined by god, but the fact that x=1 is determined by us.
Wicknight wrote: » We would have to assert we are above God (in the transcendent sense) for that to be the case, as the determination of God's knowledge would be then dependent on us. Since God is defined as omniscient this is not possible. Or to put it another way, we would determine x is 1 and through this action God would know that x is 1. This places us above God in the pecking order, which contradicts Christian theology.
That is a paradox because as you say we are determined by God. Thus his knowledge cannot be determined by us since we are in turn determined by God (with all his knowledge). As his knowledge is omniscient, ie is is ultimate supreme eternal or what ever term we want to use, his knowledge cannot be determined through an action of his (ie production of us). You end up with a self referencing system, where God's knowledge is increased through his actions and our actions in turn. But God's knowledge cannot be increased, he is all knowing and eternal. By definition God's knowledge is at an infinite value already. Or to put it another way, if x was determined by us that would mean that if God did not produce us his knowledge would be what it is minus x, ie x would be an unknown because we do not exist to determine it. This is an impossibility. God's knowledge is maximum, it cannot increase or decrease depending on the existence of other things.
Morbert wrote: » How does it place us above God in the pecking order if we determine some of God's knowledge? Remember that God chose to give us this freedom and power. But I didn't say we are determined by God. I said our existence is determined by God. Our choices, and hence God's knowledge of our choices, is determined by us.
Morbert wrote: » How does it place us above God in the pecking order if we determine some of God's knowledge? Remember that God chose to give us this freedom and power.
Morbert wrote: » But I didn't say we are determined by God. I said our existence is determined by God. Our choices, and hence God's knowledge of our choices, is determined by us.
Wicknight wrote: » God is ultimate. If he does not know something unless it is determined by our choices then he is dependent on us, thus not ultimate, not omniscient. We have to be dependent on God entirely, he cannot be dependent on us. Now I guess someone could make the argument that God chooses to limit his knowledge, but that gets messy paradoxical territory.
But that comes after our existences in the peeking order (we have to exist first before we can make choices and we cannot exist without God). So what you are supposing is that something God does produces us which in turn produces our choice which in turn produces an element of God (his absolute knowledge which is not determined without our choice) This is impossibly cyclical. Since God is ultimate you might as well say that God produces us which in turn produces our choice which in turn produces God, since there is little difference saying it produces a tiny bit of God (his knowledge of our choice) or the entire thing. Neither is possible. God's ultimate knowledge, his omniscients, cannot be dependent on us it cannot be determined by us as this contradicts omniscience in the first place. By the way I'm using some what temporal language just because your sort of have to (after, order etc), don't let this give the impression that what I'm saying requires a temporal time line, it doesn't. All this applies if we imagine an eternal state of everything.
Morbert wrote: » It doesn't apply if there is no time. The relationship between God's will, our will, and the universe is like a steady-state solution, independent of time. We exist by God's will, the universe exists by God's will, and events in the universe exist by our will. There is no cycle or recursion unless you try and include some supernatural temporal order whereby God, at one point in supernatural time, knew stuff, then he made us at a later point in supernatural time, and learned new stuff.
Morbert wrote: » Also, you are conflating God with God's knowledge.
Morbert wrote: » Our will affects his knowledge, and hence his interaction with us, but not his inherent qualities or essence.
Wicknight wrote: » Agreeing with Christians? What are you talking about? That is utterly irrelevant, as I'm sure you know.
How about this "In my opinion a consensual homosexual relationship is always moral"
Subjective and absolute. Contradiction please.
Subjectivism ... is a form of moral relativism in which the truth of moral claims is relative to the attitudes of individuals
moral subjectivism is that species of moral relativism that relativizes moral value to the individual subject
Although there are many different kinds of relativism, they all have two features in common. 1) They all assert that one thing (e.g. moral values, beauty, knowledge, taste, or meaning) is relative to some particular framework or standpoint (e.g. the individual subject, a culture, an era, a language, or a conceptual scheme). 2) They all deny that any standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.
Wicknight wrote: » There is a cycle because in what you are saying we determine some of God's knowledge. Yet we are a product of God. We are a product of the already fully realized knowledge, so we cannot determine what this knowledge is.
Because God is omniscient you have to. God cannot be separated from his knowledge because as you say he is not temporal. There is no point where God doesn't know something but will in the future.
God's absolute knowledge of everything is an inherent quality, an inherent essence. It exits as God does in an eternal never changing state. Thus we cannot determine it as we are a product of God, thus a product of this never changing state.
ISAW wrote: » No it isn't. The Main topic of discussion is the existance of god for example.
ISAW wrote: » Can you prove your assertion that it is always moral is absolutely true?
ISAW wrote: » how is your opinion better than or superiour to any christian opinion?
ISAW wrote: » absolutes are objectively verifiable /falsifiable.
ISAW wrote: » You satisfy 1 but claim not to follow 2.
ISAW wrote: » But you also claim your standpoint is subjective which means it is just yours and can not be shown to be privileged over any others with reference to an objective/absolute standard.
Morbert wrote: » Again, "already" implies a temporal dimension.
Morbert wrote: » That is a non-sequitur. The energy-momentum relation in relativity is atemporal, but energy and momentum are separate. So "God cannot be separated from knowledge" does not follow from "God exists outside of time".
Morbert wrote: » Again, you are conflating God with knowledge. God's omniscience is a property of God, but the the knowledge itself is not God.
Wicknight wrote: » In an eternal dimension everything is set and always has been set. This is what I mean by already. x is already 1 because it has always been and always will be 1. "Being 1" is a property of x that cannot separated from it.
Same with God and his knowledge. Knowing everything is a property of God that cannot be separated from him. It cannot be dependent on something else, like us.
No, it follows from God is omniscient. You appear to be imagining an eternal being that at the same time doesn't know things until they are determined. As you keep pointing out to me there is not "until they are determined". God and his knowledge is eternal and never changing. That isn't the point. The eternal property of God applies to the knowledge as well, since since if God is omniscient the knowledge cannot be temporal or changing.
Wicknight wrote: » It is utterly irrelevant to whether I can be subjective absolutist. Are you seriously saying I can so long as I agree with Christians
Yes. My opinion is that it is always moral. Is this my opinion? Yes. Thus it is true.
Only if they are objective. If they are subjective they aren't. They are only false if they are a lie (ie I state my opinion but it is not really my opinion)
It is my opinion that Porkies 2 is the absolute worst movie of all time.
The truth part of this statement is that it is or isn't my opinion, not that Porkies 2 is objectively the worst movie of all time, since such a claim is not presented as an objective truth.
It doesn't have to be "shown" to be privilege. It is privilege by virtue of me privileging it. That is what privileged means. It is why it is subjective :rolleyes:
CerebralCortex wrote: » But the knowledge of our choices are inescapable from his omniscience. He knows what we chose as product of his omniscience no to mention he created us to make that choice as a product of his omnipotence. So either Christians don't believe he's omniscient or there's an inconsistency.
ISAW wrote: » If you come to a christian group to argue about the existance of a christian god on the basis of God being the objective source of all morals as opposed to morals being subjective and dependant not on God but only on your opinion then that is relevant isn't it?
ISAW wrote: » ther you go agaion defining what is true and right based on your subjective opinion. thinkg are only true and right relative to what you think about them.
ISAW wrote: » But if it is not really just your opinion and it is absolutely true it is true in spite of and not because of your opinion.
ISAW wrote: » You are just picking a matter of opinion and not a matter of fact.
ISAW wrote: » Morals are not to be treated like relative entities like that where they are just a matter of relative subjective opinion. They are right or wrong.
ISAW wrote: » You can't prove it is the worst movie of all time without an objective standards - which does not apply to movies.
ISAW wrote: » Nope. You saying it is privileged just because you say it is is just your relative opinion.
Morbert wrote: » Again, there is no eternal dimension. There is no "always has been". You are implicitly supposing a time dimension again. It is, instead, atemporal. This means we must define the relationships between God, us, and the universe without reference to a time dimension. That relation is as I have said already: We exist by God's will. The universe exists by God's will. The events of the the universe exist by our will. Notice how I have not referenced any supernatural temporal time line.
Morbert wrote: » You are being inconsistent here. I have already agreed that omniscience is a property of God. We were discussing whether or not the knowledge itself was God.
Morbert wrote: » "We determine God" does not follow from "God is omniscient, and some of the specifics of some knowledge is determined by us."
Wicknight wrote: » No. Not to the question of whether someone can be a subjective absolutist.
You missed the point. I don't think my moral opinion is true (or false for that matter), since in subjective morality a moral opinion is not compared to an objective standard.
The only truth in it is the question of whether it is or isn't my opinion.
It is not absolutely true. To be absolutely true requires something to compare it to, it requires objective standard.
The only truth is that it is absolutely my moral opinion which I apply absolutely.
As I already said - subjective/objective where the morals come from relativist/absolute how they are applied.
It is illogical of you to assume the morals are objective in nature when I told you they aren't and then apply objective standards (is the moral opinion "true") when applying it to whether it is relativistic or absolute. They don't apply because it is not objective in the first place. If right and wrong are purely a matter of opinion you can't have absolute morals which you claimed exist! i.e. things which are always wrong. But now it seems what you claimed were applications are NOT applications but the truth of whether things are right and wrong. Already you are departing from your definition! So you don't not accept that subjectivity exists and you do not accept someone can believe in subjective morality. It isn't a question of what I believe . It is what logical and objective language says. People can believe in whatever they want. when they make claims based on their belief that requires evidence. the evidence is measured to by universally agreed to objective standards. Great, if you had told me that 5 pages ago I would not have wasted my time with this some what off topic discussion. Sometimes it is necessary to unravel what you actually mean and that you will adhere to it in future. Correct. That is what subjectivity means. All I can be is of the opinion that it is the worst movie of all time. That is a subjective opinion, and it is also a completely absolute opinion. Not without an absolute standard of judging moivies it isnt. But of course by "absolute" you mean "applies only to my opinion and I apply that judgement in all cases of this movie" Which I and the rest of philosophy would call "relative". But Im happy to tolerate your changing definition as long as you stick to it. Subjective opinion ISAW, subjective opinion. So you claim How do you know?
If right and wrong are purely a matter of opinion you can't have absolute morals which you claimed exist! i.e. things which are always wrong. But now it seems what you claimed were applications are NOT applications but the truth of whether things are right and wrong. Already you are departing from your definition! So you don't not accept that subjectivity exists and you do not accept someone can believe in subjective morality. It isn't a question of what I believe . It is what logical and objective language says. People can believe in whatever they want. when they make claims based on their belief that requires evidence. the evidence is measured to by universally agreed to objective standards. Great, if you had told me that 5 pages ago I would not have wasted my time with this some what off topic discussion. Sometimes it is necessary to unravel what you actually mean and that you will adhere to it in future. Correct. That is what subjectivity means. All I can be is of the opinion that it is the worst movie of all time. That is a subjective opinion, and it is also a completely absolute opinion. Not without an absolute standard of judging moivies it isnt. But of course by "absolute" you mean "applies only to my opinion and I apply that judgement in all cases of this movie" Which I and the rest of philosophy would call "relative". But Im happy to tolerate your changing definition as long as you stick to it. Subjective opinion ISAW, subjective opinion. So you claim How do you know?
So you don't not accept that subjectivity exists and you do not accept someone can believe in subjective morality.
Great, if you had told me that 5 pages ago I would not have wasted my time with this some what off topic discussion.
Correct. That is what subjectivity means. All I can be is of the opinion that it is the worst movie of all time. That is a subjective opinion, and it is also a completely absolute opinion.
Subjective opinion ISAW, subjective opinion.
ISAW wrote: » Knowing the future is not a logical contradiction of free will. . Just because God can foresee which choice you will make, it does not mean you couldn't still freely choose the other option.
Wicknight wrote: » It does because God's knowledge cannot be separated from God's eternal nature. God can't not know something that is determined by something else since nothing exists but God and everything that comes from God.
antiskeptic wrote: » Yet many times over the years I've witnessed the device of AI being introduced in order to counter the "God's ownership rights over us" argument. The device of AI suggests it possible to have a separation between creature and created. That not everything about the AI is a product of the creator. Haven't you yourself used that device?
ISAW wrote: Knowing the future is not a logical contradiction of free will. . Just because God can foresee which choice you will make, it does not mean you couldn't still freely choose the other option.
-JammyDodger- wrote: » It seems as if there's a paradox in there somewhere. I just can't put my finger on it. You're given a choice between A and B. God knows that you're going to choose A. Supposedly you have free will, so you could choose either A or B. But, you can't really choose B, can you? If God knows which choice you're going to make, then free will seems nothing more than an illusion.
Fanny Cradock wrote: » God knows you are going to choose A because you made (or will make) the choice to choose A. God's knowledge is contingent on our decision, not the other way around.
Wicknight wrote: » Well in fairness "by our will" is exactly the same, it implies one follows the other. It is nearly impossible to discuss this concept without some references to order, and order implies temporality. I don't think the English exists to do otherwise.
Not really, at least that wasn't the particular point i was trying to get across. The point is that the eternal nature of God applies to the knowledge as well. The knowledge cannot be dependent on us.
It does because God's knowledge cannot be separated from God's eternal nature. God can't not know something that is determined by something else since nothing exists but God and everything that comes from God.
Morbert wrote: » Again, you are implicitly assuming a temporal dimension by saying "eternal". I will continue to correct you until you stop making that mistake. I'm assuming you misspoke here, as you are agreeing with me if you believe God can't not know something that is determined by something else. Indeed, God knows everything that is determined by us.
-JammyDodger- wrote: » Indeed. That then follows through to the argument which Morbert and Wicknight were having. (Which I still haven't made up my mind on, to be honest.) I was just replying directly to ISAW here.