So, does God “know” the future?
I’m 14 and go to a Catholic school where I am forced to take a Religion class. After reading so much of the Bible, sadly for me, it has made me an agnostic/atheist. But let’s say God exists. In the Old Testament, he constantly tells the protagonists what will happen in the future, through prophecies. My question is, if he knows that they are going to happen, would that mean that it is going to happen? As in, it couldn’t NOT happen, so it has to happen? But then, we wouldn’t really be able to make any choices, as the only course of action would be the one that God knew would happen. If we didn’t follow it, then God would have been wrong in making the prophecy, so he wouldn’t be all-knowing. So we would only have the illusion of free will, but really we would just be following the set path that God had already foretold, right?
I’d just like some other people’s thoughts on the matter. By now I’ve come to see “God” as a symbol for goodness in the world, and not as an entity. I’m at a really tough time in my life trying to formulate my spiritual beliefs, and it seems I’m all alone at my age.
Ok, well I can see that hardly anyone even reads the body of the text, or if they do, they give very short unexplanatory answers, so I’m just going to give up on this site.
Suggestion by Tony R
Nope
But Doc and Marty McFly do
Suggestion by woohoo
no
Suggestion by iluvedward
God knows everything!=]
would this capture your attention enough to continue reading?
This is the introduction to a novel I’m going to give a go at creating. It lays out the history of what the story will be based on and gives an insight into the troubles that will occur in the future. It is much like Romeo and Juliet, about a girl (Eadalf’s daughter) and a boy (Olghar’s son) who cannot be together but fall in love anyway. It will have a modern twist to it and it will have a fairytale setting, set back around the time of Beowulf. I also have a prologue that I will include if anyone wants to see it after reading the intro, so please let me know what you think and if you would keep reading!
On a small island southeast of Scotland, halfway between Norway and England, settled in the calmest waters of the North Sea, a powerful, independent kingdom has been flourishing with life and natural resources.
The Gaels inhabited the land and named it Terrabefridd, meaning “free land”, after a long pilgrimage from Scotland, and began to build their own kingdom. They hiked miles into the forests and mountains, and finally settled on a huge plain of empty land—covered in the greenest grass and overlooking the sea. A descendant from the late king of Scotland claimed the throne and immediately took order of the new community of eager Scots and Brits. Luckily, a scribe from England happened to be among the villagers, who was able to teach English to all the people. He bestowed the nickname “Gaels” among them, because most of them had come from Scotland, and many had originated in Ireland. He taught the Gaels that although they were all from different countries, they were now part of one land, and that they wouldn’t be classified separately anymore.
King Christopher III and his wife Miriam ruled the kingdom of Gaeldore for years. The kingdom had villages, entertainment, and many chambers in its castle for all the king’s greatest warriors and a great hall for celebrations.
All seemed to be thriving in Gaeldore, and for nearly a century, the Gaels lived in peace.
When the king’s successor, Osgar, decided to have the child of one of the wenches of the lower class, he was given a bastard son, who was unfit to rule the kingdom. An outrage broke out, and the Gaels quickly turned on each other. War was dangerously near for the kingdom, and the king could feel it. So, he sent for help from his son’s mother’s country of Norway, and reported that their heir was in grave danger. Panicked and fooled by Osgar, the Nordics sent out an army of lethally trained warriors to retrieve the boy. Little did they know the real trouble they were about to get themselves into.
As soon as the Nordics arrived on the island of Terrabefridd, they demanded to be brought to the king of the Gaels. Frightened and caught completely off guard by the quality of these men, Osgar obliged, and handed his child over to them.
After the boy had vanished from Gaeldore, the Gaels settled down and peace was restored. The king married a royal young woman a few years later and they gave birth to a son, whom they named Eadalf. He was to inherit the throne as soon as he married, since the Gaels were still quite unhappy with Osgar’s poor decision-making.
As promised, Eadalf met a lovely young woman and married her, and became king of Gaeldore. Together, Eadalf and Queen Elspeth ruled their kingdom, and after the first year, they had a baby girl. They had two sons shortly after, and raised them in the castle, teaching them to read and speak and act properly.
All was well on Terrabefridd, and the Gaels were happier than ever.
However, as Eadalf aged, so did his half-brother Olghar. One day, Olghar and a group of his men invaded Gaeldore. He attempted to claim the throne as his rightful position since he was the firstborn son of king Osgar, but Eadalf refused. Infuriated, Olghar vowed he would not leave Gaeldore, no matter how Eadalf felt. He took the opposite side of the great plain, which was still partially empty. Olghar and his men built a fortress of their own and closed it off with tall walls and moats to prevent an easy invasion.
Resigned and tired out, Eadalf told his Gaels to try their best to ignore the invaders. As long as they kept to their side, they weren’t a threat.
Olghar brought his queen and their three children to live in his new castle, overlooking his brother’s. He brought his own people to populate his new kingdom of Norulus, and they were quickly a very thriving new community.
The two brothers and their two separate kingdoms, sitting on opposite sides of a potential battle front, lived in fear of each other, constantly sending spies to check up on things and never allowing their people to cross boundaries.
Now, seven years later and with tensions still through the roof, the two kingdoms are unknowingly about to experience one threatening occurrence that could ultimately start the bloodbath that has been on the verge of breaking out ever since Osgar betrayed his beloved Gaels.
Image may be NSFW.
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I don’t mind if anyone would like to borrow ideas from this but please be respectful and don’t steal my work! Thanks!
Roadwalker, thank you for your input! I just have one question, what do you mean exactly by “real people?”
Suggestion by Roadwalker
You seem to have a solid plot. The work you have cut out for you is developing some believable characters. You can have an epic story, but without real people in it it’s nothing.
I might read this if a friend recommended it or if I started it and the characterization hooked me.
EDIT: by real people I meant believable characters. People that you could believe are real.
this is just one Writer’s Digest article I found helpful. Can can browse the site. It’s all good stuff for writers.
http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/improve-my-writing/8-ways-to-write-better-characters
Suggestion by brother_in_magic
The only thing I would remove is the references to real historical peoples such as Gaels,Scots, Norse etc. By all means set it in a world similar to northwestern Europe in the age of Beowulf, but unless you are really au fait with the history of those peoples,and their names and languages, it’s probably not a good idea to use them. For instance you say the Gaels named their land Terrabrefridd, but this name is sounds very Latin/Germanic and definitely not Gaelic (the word for land would be Tir.)
The names of Christopher and Miriam are relatively modern, not appearing in the British isles till after the Norman invasion of 1066. The name Eadulf is back to Anglo-Saxon (Germanic), but I thought he was a Gael?
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Do we really have free will?
Follow me here…
The bible says we have free will, but it contradicts itself. If God knows all then He knows what is going to happen in the future.
Because He knows what is going to happen and He can’t be wrong, then He knows exactly what we are going to do. Because He can’t be wrong, we have to follow his plan. If we follow his plan, our lives can only go where He already knew they were going. We can not change the plan, so even though we think we chose to do something, in all reality, God said we were going to do it whether we wanted it or not.
So after reading this, do you still think we have freewill, or are we all predestined to do what God already knows?
Suggestion by Hmmm
yes
Suggestion by Josh
I’m a robot.
Suggestion by The Hall Monitor
No, we don’t have free will…but not because of anything the bible may, or may not, imply.
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Do you think this could happen in the future?
When reading this, understand this came from my friends analogy of feminism. Feminism is like the machines in the matrix. The modern American woman is Agent Smith. Ok, so its now become clear that America is sort of an island in regards to where we are going politically and socially. Very few countries hold our same viewpoints. One of the main aspects of this is in gender relations. Most women (and most men) believe men are inferior and women are superior. Most women look for guys that she can control through sex and most men only want sex even if they are the girls slave. However, more and more women are stating seem to hate everything more and more and want to see everything be destroyed. So my question is in 200 years could the US be covered with a nuclear proof shield, men are hooked up to a system (like the matrix) that causes them to be in a constant dream state while they act as robotic slaves. Women are given plastic surgery and brain changes so they all look and act like robotic dolls and the women that don’t buy into this are killed off or sent into exile. The few free men left are to. Then nuclear weapons are launched to every other country to eradicate the human race, leaving nothing but robotic women and robotic male slaves. Is this a possible future?
Suggestion by KMcG
It’s imaginative, you should write a book.
Suggestion by mama.duck
Ask your Magic 8 Ball…
Suggestion by jac the hat
well anything is possible in the future but why hang it all on feminism? Who owns and controls the country? Have you ever had a female president? I can see that you believe that there is a psychological downgrading of men but what is the actuality? Who decides to go to war – with whom?
During the cold war who had the hotline whose finger was on the button. I doubt that you have seen anything like equality of the sexes yet.