“‘But,’ you will say, ‘though foreknowledge is no necessity for a result in the future, yet it is a sign that it will necessarily come to pass.’
“Thus, therefore, even if there had been no foreknowledge, it would be plain that future results were under necessity; for every sign can only show what it is that it points out; it does not bring it to pass. Wherefore we must first prove that nothing happens but of necessity, in order that it may be plain that foreknowledge is a sign of this necessity.
“Otherwise, if there is no necessity, then foreknowledge will not be a sign of that which does not exist. Now it is allowed that proof rests upon firm reasoning, not upon signs or external arguments; it must be deduced from suitable and binding causes. How can it possibly be that things, which are foreseen as about to happen, should not occur?
“That would be as though we were to believe that events would not occur which Providence foreknows as about to occur, and as though we did not rather think this, that though they occur, yet they have had no necessity in their own natures which brought them about.
“We can see many actions developing before our eyes; just as chariot drivers see the development of their actions as they control and guide their chariots, and many other things likewise. Does any necessity compel any of those things to occur as they do? Of course not. All art, craft, and intention would be in vain, if everything took place by compulsion.”
—from Book 5, Prose 4
Fine, perhaps I have been jumping the gun. I may have to admit that God’s knowledge isn’t actually what makes something happen the way it does; can’t I continue to affirm that it still must happen the way it does, and so God’s knowledge is merely an indicator, a “sign”, of that inevitability? The inevitability would still be there!
Still, I need to be careful about what I mean by something being inevitable or necessary. Yes, I can say that something has happened, or that it is happening, or that it will happen, and yet that does not necessarily imply that it could not be different, that it is impossible for it to be otherwise.
I have done many things in my life, for example, a few of which I am proud, and a very many of which I am ashamed. There is unfortunately no changing them now, of course, well after the fact. Nevertheless, at the time I had a breadth of options open to me, and I could have followed any number of different paths. My own judgments moved me one way or another, making the results contingent, hardly inevitable or necessary.
In whatever time that remains to me, I am also still going to do certain things, hopefully with somewhat of a better balance of gains and losses. They are not yet complete, even as they will depend on my future decisions, and even as I can hardly even imagine now what sort of situations I might face. There is no doubt that there will be results to come, but those result are not yet written in stone.
Does God know what I have chosen in the past? Yes, just as I do, even though He surely knows me far better than I know myself.
Does God know what I will choose in the future? Yes, even though for me they are only topics of wild speculation.
I am sorely mistaken, however, if I think that I have to do anything because God already knows it, or even that God could only know it because I had no choice in doing it. I make the call, and God understands exactly the call I make.
I have never driven a chariot, though I have tried my best at driving a car, and at least I was taught to always look around me, to always be aware of what was happening on the road.
Perhaps I have been sloppy and distracted, however, and I suddenly see a tree growing larger in my windshield. The tree isn’t moving toward me, of course, but I am moving toward the tree, and it might seem that an impact is imminent.
Must there be a crash? This whole situation wouldn’t have happened to begin with, if I’d paid attention a moment earlier, and it might still be resolved for the best if I react thoughtfully and quickly right now. Some variables will be up to me, and other variables will be up to forces far beyond me.
To put it another way, I am not simply played upon by the world, but I am also myself a player in the world. Even as I am moved about by things outside me, I also continue to move myself. Providence accounts for that, and Providence understands that.
Written in 1/2016
IMAGE: Gustave Doré, Allegory of Fate (1878)
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