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To: Natural Law

“and God knows your intent, right/”
Yes, God is omniscient.
***

I am not sure I agree with that. I am struggling with the concept of omniscience vs. free will, and the definition of omniscience. Can God know that which is unknowable? If not, is He not omniscient? For example, God cannot know the eye color of my third child— because I have no third child. That does not make God less than omniscient.

If God gave us free will, He could have created us so that even He cannot predict what we will do. Kind of like a young child before whom a piece of candy is placed. We have a good idea of what he is likely to do, but we do not know for sure.

Anyway, my tangled thinking...


105 posted on 04/10/2013 7:24:03 AM PDT by NCLaw441
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To: NCLaw441

We need the concept of freewill to be able to make laws and have functioning societies.


109 posted on 04/10/2013 7:30:08 AM PDT by stuartcr ("I have habits that are older than the people telling me they're bad for me.")
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To: NCLaw441
" I am struggling with the concept of omniscience vs. free will"

Foreknowing is not the same as predestination. God knew every moment and decision of our lives since the beginning if time.

A good way to look at this is a hypothetical visit to a cemetery. As we walk through it we see the evidence of lives lived sequentially. If we begin in the oldest section of the cemetery can see the headstone of a person born in 1750 and dying in 1825. A little further on we will see the gravestone of person born in 1830 and dying in 1900. Newer still we will see that of a person born in 1904 and dying in 1985. In the newest section we will see the grave of someone we actually knew, born in 1935 and dying in 2013.

God, existing out of time, would see that same graveyard as though from an airplane, seeing all of the graves from above at the same time.

Unknowable is inconsistent with omniscient. All of creation is the result of a thought from God, He is the Creator.

Peace be with you

110 posted on 04/10/2013 8:29:22 AM PDT by Natural Law (Jesus did not leave us a Bible, He left us a Church.)
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