Expert: Austin Cline - 8/2/2010

Question
QUESTION: dear expert,


The common reply to the faith-testing theodicy (which attempts to conciliate a good God with natural Evil) that since God is defined as omnipotent, why can't He just "analyse" believers' hearts to check if their faith is genuine?  
(indeed, abrahamic scriptures often ascribe to God the power of knowing -by "reading" our heart-  our deepest and hidden intentions/desires/wished/thoughts ).

Theists admit this power but deny it would be an accurate tool for genuinefaith-detection, because this would violate free will:

eg: suppose I'm a believer and God is seeing now that my belief is not 100% sincere. And yet,  this don't guarantee Him I will keep this defect forever; I may, one day, decide to change and become a better believer.


===>However, if we read scriptures don't we find for instance in the Quran Noah is depicted as a prophet chosen by God
to convince his people (who were initially unbelivers) that God exists. Few of them followed Noah.
And to justify the flood punishment, scriptures state that God somehow knew that the remaining disbelievers would never have
believed Noah.

this contradicts apologist's point:
How did God knew those drown disbelievers wouldn't have come round? He has surely used his mind-reading power.

Thus, isn't sensible to think He can use his mind-reading power to test our faith instead of natural evil?



What do you think about it?



sincerely

ANSWER: The idea that "reading" our minds or hearts would violate our free will is just nonsense. Apologists do not in any other circumstances deny that their god can know their hearts - what they really, truly believe.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your reply.

Consequently, if while reading my friend's  mind, I notice that he's righteous,
but when I go deeper in his mind, I find that his most hidden thoughts and intentions are :"You're a good friend, but if I were given 1 million dollars for killing you, I'd do so".

Is it enough to safely predict he'll really do so if someone give him that amount of money?
Or do I need to test him in practice (by calling an associate and telling him to give my friend one million) to ensure me he won't change his intention?



sincerely

Answer
Are you talking about *you* or a perfect deity?

You can't know for sure because you aren't perfect and omniscient. A perfect, omniscient deity in contrast is... perfect and omniscient. Such a deity can't be fooled. Such a deity would know if a willingness to kill for $1 million will translate into action or not. A deity that *needs* to create practical tests would be neither perfect nor omniscient.

However, such a deity might want to create such tests as a means of informing us about our "true" natures.