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How did St. Augustine address the conflict between God's knowledge and human freedom?
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Free will and moral responsibility
Immanuel Kant, print published in London, 1812.
St. Augustine addressed the apparent conflict between divine omniscience and human freedom by arguing that God exists outside the constraints of time.1
Because God is a perfect, omniscient being who resides beyond the temporal realm, the concept of "foreknowledge"âwhich implies a sequence of events occurring before othersâdoes not apply to Him as it does to humans. Since temporal directionality is absent for God, it is logically incorrect to suggest that God "foresees" human choices in a way that would restrict human agency. By positioning God outside of time, Augustine sought to reconcile the existence of an omniscient Creator with the reality of human free will.1