tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2290828421410624791.post267089894519020560..comments2024-03-14T10:32:29.233-05:00Comments on Blood of Prokopius: Saintly Saturday: The Prophet MicahFrDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00459281821319914530noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2290828421410624791.post-78255703516268396082013-01-07T16:30:37.585-06:002013-01-07T16:30:37.585-06:00Thanks for the explanation, both on the free will ...Thanks for the explanation, both on the free will issue and its application to divination spells. I'm currently reading Reilly's "The Closing of the Muslim Mind," which discusses an early theological conflict within Islam on the nature of God and the implications the "winning argument" had on important questions, such as free will. The contrast with the lesson you give above couldn't be more stark. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. I think you'd find it interesting reading.Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254215329246851683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2290828421410624791.post-66671368218814908902013-01-07T12:55:59.123-06:002013-01-07T12:55:59.123-06:00But if God says "You shall persuade him, and ...<i>But if God says "You shall persuade him, and also prevail...," how then is Ahab's free will a factor?</i><br /><br />Free will is <i>always</i> a factor. God cannot mess with free will lest he destroy His creation (which he has definitively demonstrated that He does not want to do by going to the Cross). Ahab is made in the image and likeness of God (he is human). Since God is free, so must Ahab have free will. If God messes with free will, He destroys the image and likeness — destroying that which He declared very good.<br /><br />In this particular case, God predicting that Ahab would be persuaded by the lying spirit is akin to predicting that a high school football team is going to lose badly to an NFL team. God knows Ahab's heart and knows his desires. This doesn't change the fact that on any given day, a high school team could pull of the impossible or that Ahab could actually listen to the advice that Micah provides.<br /><br />Thus, despite the fact that God says Ahab will be fooled doesn't mess with Ahab's ability to choose. In this same way, divination systems in RPGs never really determine the outcome — they might prejudice the players to taking a certain course, but the choice is always up to them. <br /><br />Seen in this way, divination spells in an RPG can never be retroactively wrong — it just gave the players the information they needed in order to facilitate the choices that they made...even when the divination contradicts the outcome — it was what the characters needed to hear.FrDavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00459281821319914530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2290828421410624791.post-4547256640790767972013-01-07T10:53:34.383-06:002013-01-07T10:53:34.383-06:00But if God says "You shall persuade him, and ...But if God says "You shall persuade him, and also prevail...," how then is Ahab's free will a factor? It sounds like God is guaranteeing that the lying spirit will be the most persuasive and that Micah, no matter what he could say, would fail, because God needed Ahab to be at Ramoth Gilead.<br /><br />The question of free will vs fate is a tricky one in RPGs when it comes to divination spells, or rules that simulate divinatory systems, such as astrology or tarot. I always found it hard to referee, because you didn't want to tie the players to one path, on the one hand, but also not hand out information so vague as to be useless.Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254215329246851683noreply@blogger.com