Omniscience

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A word that means "all-knowing," this is usually applied to God.

There is some dispute about what "all" actually means. Does God literally know everything?

It is also difficult for apologists to demonstrate an infinite God from finite phenomena. Also, omniscience is incompatible with other alleged attributes of God.

Mathematics[edit]

Does god know π (pi) and all other irrational numbers for example to an infinite number of decimal places? If so God must be infinitely complex and statements by theologians that God is simple are false. Incidentally God or whoever wrote 1 Kings 7:23 Bible-icon.png did not know π, there π is given as exactly 3. [1] Is π 3.14159 etc or is π exactly 3? Teaching the controversy would confuse some school children while the more intelligent and older children would come to doubt the Bible.

Free will and predestination[edit]

Does god know not only everything that has happened, but that also might happen? If so, then in what sense does free will exist? If all your decisions are known by God before you make them then it's not clear if you are really making any "choices" since all the things that you do are predestined. God cannot be omniscient and morally perfect because if he's omniscient he knows all future events but if he knows all future events then my future is already determined. In other words, God has fated everything to happen by being omniscient thus he is the cause of all evil and misfortune. So, either we have free will or God is omniscient, how could both be true?

In a universe with a truly omniscient God, the Calvinist doctrine of predestination would have to be true. This carries its own set of issues, as it implies that God intentionally creates people already knowing that they will wind up in hell, see Maltheism.

Counter arguments[edit]

This objection assumes omniscience is the cause or fates all events where in reality it's the other way around. God's knowledge doesn't seal your future fate, your own choices do and God is simply aware of what you'll do. As William Lane Craig says:

"By your actions you have the ability, in a sense, to determine what God will have believed in the past, his knowledge is like an infallible barometer, the barometer never fails, it's always right, but clearly the barometer doesn't determine the weather, if the weather were different the barometer would have been different, you're free to do what you want but you're not free to fool the barometer. Your action is logically prior to what God foreknows but his foreknowledge is chronologically prior to what you do"

The atheist philosopher, Nicholas Everett, also says:

"We will argue that theists have been unnecessarily concerned about divine foreknowledge of free action: the two concepts are not in any conflict"

Let's also remember that if God is outside of time:

  • He could simply actualize all time at once.
  • He would not be in the past knowing how the future plays out.
  • From His perspective He would actualize all our actions in a single timeless instance.
  • Foreknowledge would be meaningless.

In conclusion God would not determine anything by simply knowing, what happens, determines what God knows.

Some will still argue that God created the Universe knowing of all the evil that would happen, so God must be responsible since he knew what would happen, he still chose to create the Universe. However this can be addressed through molinism. We need to remember that God does not simply have foreknowledge of the future that will happen but he also has foreknowledge of every future that possibly could happen. We could think of God's knowledge in three epistemic categories:

  • Natural knowledge, God's knowledge of all logical truths and of everything that could happen (example: God could actualize a world where I could work in any profession without taking into account free will). Natural knowledge does not take into account freedom. - Natural knowledge simply contains all the logical possible worlds.
  • Middle knowledge, contains all the feasible worlds, that is to say, all the possible worlds were God could actualize a possible world while working with human freedom (example: God could actualize a world were I could work in any profession taking into account free will).
  • Free knowledge, is the knowledge of what actual events will play out in the actual world.

Thus the response goes: it is possible that in middle knowledge there are no possible worlds where God could create a world where we are free and there is no evil or misfortune. However if that's true then God would actualize the world where there is the least amount of evil, while taking human free choices into account. Therefore given human freedom, within middle knowledge God might not be able to actualize perfect worlds or worlds with less evil because there are no possible worlds where we are free and always do the right thing, or do the good thing more often.

Evil[edit]

Finally, if God is not only omniscient but also omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then this is the foundation for the problem of evil.

Biblical Contradictions[edit]

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For more information, see the Skeptic's Annotated Bible article:
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For more information, see the Skeptic's Annotated Bible article:

Fundamentalist Christians believe in the infallibility of the Bible, yet there are arguable contradictions to the issue of God's omniscience.

"The attributes assigned to "God" by post-biblical theologians -- such as omniscience and immutability -- are simply not attributes possessed by the character Yahweh as drawn in biblical narratives. Indeed, on several occasions Yahweh is explicitly described as changing his mind, because when it comes to human beings his learning curve is steep. Humans have free will; they act in ways that surprise him and he must change tack and respond. [2]"

The characters in the Bible act as if they believe God is not omniscience. Even when God asks a direct question of someone, they attempt to conceal information.

Luke 2:52 Bible-icon.png:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Genesis 3:8 Bible-icon.png:

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, amongst the trees of the garden.

Genesis 4:9 Bible-icon.png

Then Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis 18:9 Bible-icon.png:

And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

Genesis 18:20-21 Bible-icon.png:

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

Job 1:7 Bible-icon.png, Job 2:2 Bible-icon.png:

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

2 Chronicles 32:31 Bible-icon.png:

God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

Many more are cited in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible.

References[edit]