[Buddha-l] Fighting creationism

[Stephen Hodge]

Stan Z wrote:

Despite your absolving proviso, I always find it difficult to reconcile 
this:

> One consequence we can draw from this
> is that there is no being, act, process, change, etc. separate from God's
> power at any time.

with this:

> the freely knowing and willing human being.

If human beings are created by this God, who is by definition omnipotent 
(with certain specific imitations) and presumably omniscient, how can this 
free-knowledge and free-will be anything more than illusory ?  From our 
perspective, we may seem to have these capacities, but from the deity's 
point of view the outcome of any choice based on this supposed free-will was 
already known, and hence pre-determined, at the initial instant of 
creation -- which I suppose is the understanding which gave rise to the 
Calvinist doctrine of predestination.  Have I missed something ?

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge