God, Man’s best friend

This episode of Can You Predict the Past? focuses on the theological perspective of free will, exploring how human choice fits (or conflicts) with the idea of God’s plan. Host Kaden Proa is joined by his guest, Andrew McKay, for a conversational, non-expert discussion. A central question drives the episode: If God is all-knowing and has a plan, can free will truly exist? Andrew argues that many theological views try to balance these ideas by suggesting that free will is actually part of God’s plan—that humans are given the ability to choose, and the outcomes (including consequences) unfold within that framework. However, this creates tension because if God already knows everything, it becomes difficult to explain how choices are genuinely free. To address this, Andrew introduces a more relational idea of God: instead of strictly determining every event, God may understand people deeply and guide them based on their character, similar to how someone can predict a close friend’s behavior. This allows for some form of free will while still maintaining divine awareness.