Weather Man

We have a friend over for Spring Break. He likes to have philosophical, religious, and political "conversations."

Today this friend said someone asked him how we can have free will if God is omniscient (knows everything). I decided to add my input on this even though I wasn't sure if they would pay attention to me. Here's the gist of what I said (which both he and Jon said was a perfect response).

People think about that the wrong way. They think that we do things because God knows we're going to do them, but it's not like that. It's the opposite way. That's like saying it snowed because the weatherman said it was going to snow. No! The weatherman said it was going to snow because it was going to snow!

I've decided to call this the Weather Man Fallacy. (Is that okay? I'd never coined my own philosophical term until today.) People say that God knows what is going to happen, so we have no choice but to follow through with what God knows. But that's not how it goes at all. God knows things are going to happen because they are going to happen.

I mentioned this in fewer words in the single philosophy class I've taken. My teacher said something that made me feel good about it (that it's a philosophical way of thinking or something like that). Then he said it's not a very Christian way of thinking. I don't see how that's true. Isn't our faith dependent on our free will?