OMNISCIENCE

What does omniscience mean?

All knowing

What is the debate surrounding Gods omniscience ?

Whether God knows the future

What issues does God knowing everything lead to?

• Free will

• Problem of evil

• Gods interaction in the world

What is a timeless God often portrayed as?

Like a man standing on a mountain, looking at the road and seeing the points of that road all at once.

What questions does a timeless god raise?

Whether if he is timeless, can he intervene in time?

What type of God wouldn’t have to know the future ?

An everlasting model of God, God knows everything that is logically possible.

What analogy did Peter Geach use to demonstrate Gods omniscience and human free will?

God is like a chess grand master playing against a novice- the novice is free to make whatever moves it wants however, ultimately the grand master is in control

What does Peter Geach’s analogy of the grand chess player argue?

Ultimately God is in control and Gods plan will win

What did Schleiermacher say on Gods knowledge?

Gods knowledge of us is like the knowledge of a very close friend, God knows us so well he can predict accurately what we will do though we remain free to do otherwise.

What does Sir Michael Dummett emphasise ?

The difference between Gods sense of knowledge and ours which is much more subjective

What is Gods knowledge according to Dummett?

Beyond perspective as it includes everything, God has understanding of everything whilst humans get things out of proportion and misunderstand their true significance in relation to everything else.

In what way does God know things according to Dummett?

In a tense of timelessness

How does Dummett believe that true propositions can be known?

Timelessly

What is the issue with truths being timeless?

For some sentences, the truth of the sentence relies on a time and place- Eg “im behind you”

What two types of knowledge are there?

1. Knowledge of what it is like to be something

2. Knowing how to do something

What does Thomas Nagel say on the difficulty of knowledge of what it is like to be something for God?

In his article- “what is it like to be a bat” he argues that we have no idea of what it is like to be a bat- therefore how can God have knowledge of a non-God experience

If God knows everything and is never ignorant- does he know what it is like to be ignorant?