This was the topic of discussion in the USU Philosophy Club yesterday evening. It actually went really well. We managed to turn a 1 hour discussion into a 2 hour one. The panel was lead by Dr. Sherlock, and was argued by 4 undergrad students with 2 on each side. Those who believed in Closed Theism were on one side and those who believed in Open Theism were on the other. One of the members of the Open Theist duo was an old aquaintance of mine from my year in Mountain View Tower.

From what I gathered, it seems that the Closed Theists argued that God cannot have omniscience (because he can’t know the future which would negate free will. The Open Theists on the other hand said that God can know all…that is logical to know, (like he can’t know even things that are not knowable, that’s illogical) and can know anything that went into our creation, as well as everything we have done, but though he knows the future (or possible future webs), he cannot know for sure what humans will do tomorrow. He does, however, know what our choices are and has a pretty good idea of which we may choose based on what he knows about us. But, they are not clear on whether all that previous knowledge sets Causality into motion…which Harrison Kleiner later pointed out was what the classical Open Theist would beleive, which would prove in their view, lack of free will.

I’m not too sure either side unerstood the theories they were representing…so now I am unable to understand how what they said reflects those theories…however they did have interesting theories. The question itself has many facets to ponder, so our argument wandered about those.