I’m no expert on open theism, but I’ll stick my foot in it anyway. An open theist might say that God is smart enough to do the calculus on the bridge and realize the collapse is going to happen without some kind of foreknowledge in the usual sense of the word. It’s not that he knew it as if it had already happened, but he was able to see that it would. It would be based on his knowledge of the past, not on his knowledge of the future. Time is real that way, not in the sense of time as a substance, but in the sense of time as a way to denote sequence.

In this view, God doesn’t know the future, because it hasn’t happened yet and cannot be known. But he’s real smart, and sometimes it seems to us like he knows the unknowable.

If a person were smart enough to do the same calculus and had the resources to change the equations by fixing the bridge, the collapse could have been prevented.

In the same way, God can change the equations—he certainly has the resources. Sometimes he does this in response to our prayers.

OK. Let me have it. I can take it. I’ve already been burned at the stake once today. I’m sure you can tell that my knowledge of open theism is at a very elementary level.