Did God invent the iPod?

[tomspug]

What if everything that exists and has existed, has already been? If God did indeed create the universe and has the ability to foresee the result of his creation, then is he not ultimately responsible for everything that comes afterwards?

It is not the same as a father taking responsibility for his son's accomplishments. It would be like a man creating and programming a robot and watching it complete the tasks that would inevitably be completed. Then everything that we see around us, every incredible accomplishment, was already accomplished in the mind of God, but chose to have it carried out through another vessel: man.

Keep in mind that this is the Theological Concepts thread. Just thought it was interesting to consider.

[Wandered Off]

That would render any judgment against us invalid, no?

[Storm]

Originally Posted by tomspug

What if everything that exists and has existed, has already been? If God did indeed create the universe and has the ability to foresee the result of his creation, then is he not ultimately responsible for everything that comes afterwards?

Yes. This is also why I hold an omnimax Creator to be incompatible with free will.

Originally Posted by Wandered Off

That would render any judgment against us invalid, no?

Yeppers. If everything we do is preordained, we are not responsible.

[tomspug]

But here is where the theology gets interesting. God didn't actually CREATE the iPod. He may have conceived it previously, but it was man who invented it.

God, if infinite, could have technically invented an infinite variations on the iPod, but mankind only created one. Is that not, in and of itself, an expression of choice?

[Storm]

If God is omnimax, he both knew and determined which version would be invented. All our "choices" have already been made.

[Wandered Off]

That gets to another argument (and we can't argue here )...
Would foreknowledge contradict free will?