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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Nelson Pike's original fatalist argument derives its force precisely from the claim that all past-tensed facts about God's beliefs are hard facts, making 'paradigm softness' a disputed assumption, not a neutral starting point.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The hard/soft fact distinction applies to events' susceptibility to change, not to metaphysical status; past beliefs remain unchangeable regardless of classification.
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    • 2.Treating divine beliefs as soft facts preserves human freedom without denying God's omniscience, offering the stronger philosophical position overall.
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    • 3.Pike assumes without argument that backward-looking temporal facts must be hard; this classification itself requires independent justification, not neutral grounding.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.God's past beliefs about future events are causally fixed and unalterable, sharing logical properties with hard facts about completed actions.
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    • 2.Pike's argument only succeeds if past divine beliefs constrain present possibilities; treating them as soft facts undermines his fatalist conclusion.
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    • 3.The burden should rest on those claiming divine past-tensed beliefs are soft—this requires a special metaphysical status not typically granted to beliefs.
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