Does God have free will?

Simple question really, does God have free will? He (she/it? I’ll stick with the male pronoun for now) supposedly gifted us with that ability, but does he have that ability himself?

At first it would appear obvious. Of course he does, he is all powerful so the ability to make his own decisions would be a must. If he didn’t have free will, then by whose hand (or what) are his choices guided? So that would seem to indicate free will for God is certain.

But lets think on. God knows everything. He is omniscient after all. But if he knows everything, then surely by definition he knows the outcome of every choice he has to make. That sort of makes things a little sticky. If he already knows the outcome of every choice he could make, then does he really have a choice?

Now, there is a school of thought that says that even though God may be all powerful and all knowing, he can’t break the laws of logic and create a paradox – i.e. his powers have limits. You may ask the question ‘Can God create a rock so heavy that even he can’t lift?’, but it’s an unsolvable paradox. But I don’t think that’s applicable in this instance. If he is all knowing, then he can’t have free will. If he has free will, then he can’t be all knowing. So which is it?

Maybe we should give God a Get out of Jail free card, and grant that he can’t second guess himself. What then?

OK, so let’s ignore the fact of Gods free will, and lets look at our own. We have at least got the illusion of free will (I’m not going to try and get all philosophical around the discussion), so let us assume that it’s real. The thing is, we still run up against the barrier of omniscience. If God really knows everything, then he already knows the outcome of every possible decision we could make. If that’s the case, then we are doing little more than reading the lines of a great cosmic play. So, what happened to the free will that he supposedly gifted us?

Divine powers don’t seem to be what they used to be.

Possibly related posts:

1. Could we* become gods?
2. Has the next Messiah been Aborted?
3. Why do Atheists care about Religion?