Omniscience ( /ɒmˈnɪʃəns/;[1] omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing". Omniscience is the capacity to know everything.

So my question is how do I have free will if God already knows everything about my past present and future?

Yes you do have free will. Your actions from this day forward is unknown. It can not be known, for you have free will.

So God is not all powerful or omnipotent.

He is. But how can your actions of tomorrow already be known? You have free will to do what you want and you have not done them yet. How would there be a "judgement" if EVERYBODIES actions were already known before they were born? What would then be the point in life? If you'll notice knowing the future does not apply to omnipotent.

So God has no power on Earth?

yeah he does... ??? Please elaborate, don't know where you got that question.

He has no control in the dealings here on Earth.

He has given us free will, to control ourselves. That is why we will be judged, if we controlled ourselves in accordance or not. He created the world to sustain itself eg., nature. The changing of this nature is a reaction of the actions man has taken. Yes there are exceptions to this eg., miracles. But all in all, the world and it's people are made to sustain themselves through the way God created us and this world.

Easy..

Knowing is one thing.
Controlling is another.

You can know what it is going to happen.
But you can idly sit by and do nothing to change it.

Thus, the idea of 'free will' would still exist.
Of course, this is only true if..

You believe in free will.

I've heard and read multiple answers to this question...none have been satisfactory to me thus far. I don't believe in free will. I don't understand how god or any other super being knows of all present and future atrocities but still let them happen. I will never get it.

How would God's knowledge of your future actions negate your free will?

What would then be the reason for life? Cause there really wouldn't be any in the long run. It's not living being controlled by another, YOU aren't living, only being a pawn for that other person/being controlling you. And why would someone/something create a world to control everything directly? What would be the reason?

Of course God knows the future Cowboy

Omniscience does not imply predetermination. Read about predestination
in the Wiki for example.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination

Predestination and omniscience

Discussion of predestination usually involves consideration of whether God is omniscient, or eternal or atemporal (free from limitations of time or even causality). In terms of these ideas, God may see the past, present, and future, so that God effectively knows the future. If God in some sense knows ahead of time what will happen, then events in the universe are effectively predetermined from God's point of view. This is a form of determinism but not predestination since the latter term implies that God has actually determined (rather than simply seen) in advance the destiny of creatures.

Within Christendom, there is considerable disagreement about God's role in setting ultimate destinies (that is, eternal life or eternal damnation). Christians who follow teachers such as John Calvin generally accept that God alone decides the eternal destinations of each person without regard to man's choices, so that their future actions or beliefs follow according to God's choice (Romans 9:14-16). A contrasting Christian view maintains that God is completely sovereign over all things but that he chose to give each individual self-determining free will through prevenient grace. Classically, this view is called Arminianism, which holds that each person is able to accept or reject God's offer of salvation and hence God allows man's choice to determine salvation (John 3:16-18).

Judaism may accept the possibility that God is atemporal; some forms of Jewish theology teach this virtually as a principle of faith, while other forms of Judaism do not. Jews may use the term omniscience, or preordination as a corollary of omniscience, but normally reject the idea of predestination as being incompatible with the free will and responsibility of moral agents, and it therefore has no place in their religion.

Islam traditionally has strong views of predestination similar to some found in Christianity. In Islam, Allah knows what choices humans are going to make and allows the actualization of the consequences of those choices based on his attributes of justice and mercy. Muslims believe that Allah is literally atemporal, eternal and omniscient.

In philosophy, the relation between foreknowledge and predestination is a central part of Newcomb's paradox.


=-=-=-=

Blah blah blah blah blah!

If every step of your life in the future is foreknown, why would we be allowed to have a life? What would be the point? And how would it be righteous to have a "judgement" when all your actions were already predetermined?

And yes God does not know the future in the generic term of "future". Knowing the future and knowing exactly every action you'll take in your future are not of the exact same thing.

Your actions aren't predetermined. God knows what you will do, because you will do those actions. God knows the future. If you didn't exist, then God wouldn't know what you would do.

You really should listen to CR.

So, if you got up and decided to dance in spot..

'Something' made you do that, aside from your own choice to do so?

They may not be "predetermined" as in God choosing what you do or don't do. But even God automatically knowing every action you'll ever make even before you make them, would make life pointless, meaningless. This life is a chance at redeaming oneself for the chance to share in the glory of the paradise God has made for us. And would also make our Judgement pointless, for their would be nothing to "judge". If your life was entirely known before it happened, there would be nothing to "judge" for your verdict would already be known when every action you'll take was known.