[Avodah] God who knows the future

[garry]

Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 19:22:35 GMT
From: REM "kennethgmiller at juno.com"
>>  I am training a newly-adopted dog.  If I leave him in a room with
>>  food on the floor, he will eat it.  He has complete freedom of
>>  choice (a better-trained dog might not), but there isn't the
>>  slightest doubt what his choice will be.
...

> It seems to me that you are confusing two very different kinds of
> knowledge....
> You are merely drawing a conclusion that the dog will eat it, or
> won't eat it. But G-d knows the event, just as surely as if it had
> already happened.

> This is why G-d's foreknowledge of the event is often perceived as His
> control over it. G-d is not merely a perfect psychologist, who knows our
> personalities so well that He can make predictions about our choices
> without ever erring. He is more like tomorrow's newspaper, for which
> all the events reported are a "done deal".

I agree that there are several important distinctions between the 
situation in my analogy and the question at hand, including the 
difference between knowledge by prediction and absolute knowledge.  But 
I still don't see how it makes knowledge the same as control.
Let's say I'm in a comic book world, and Lex Luther or someone puts a 
copy of tomorrow's newspaper on my desk.  (with a note saying "don't 
open until tomorrow")  I don't see how that has any effect on my actions 
or responsibilities today.  What I will do is already printed in the 
newspaper, but how are my choices (that's what we're talking about, 
isn't it? Choices?)  different or less free today because the newspaper 
is lying on my desk?