Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Omnicient
From: <ISSCCK@BYUVM.BITNET>
Date: Saturday, 7 Nov 1992 11:08:35 MST
Organization: Brigham Young University

#In article <1992Nov2.191505.8118@javelin.sim.es.com> gclapp@javelin.sim.
#es.com (Glenn Clapp) writes:
#>
#>Don't forget the interpretation supported by the nature of God
#>as revealed in that book, the Bible:
#>
#>God is omnicient.  He knows everything.  He knows the future.
#>He knows what I will do in a few seconds, next week, and in 20
#>years.  Therefore, he knows me.  He knows me now, he knows me
#>in the future, and he knows me in the past.  I don't even need
#>to exist in order for God to know me.  Therefore, he knew me
#>before I was born, before he created me.

You can't be serious to believe/accept/construe this to be true!
If God was omnicient, there would be no free will or agency.
For example, if God knew what choice I would make next week for
breakfast (say scrambled eggs and toast), the key issue is: who
"made up" my mind for me?  How can God absolutely "know" what I
will have for breakfast next week?  If I have no free agency to
make up my mind independent from God's will, the only solution
is that I am somehow predestined or programmed to conform to His
will.  No way.  If God "knows" what I will have for breakfast
next week, I have no "choice" but to do exactly as He "knew" me
to do, there is no option whatsoever.  According to this absolute
view, even if God would tell me what I would choose, I would not
have the power to undo my forthcoming "choice."  I reject this
doctrine because I believe in freedom of choice.  Although God
may have a "pretty good idea" what I would choose given the
available options (also referred to as "maximal or probabilistic
foreknowledge"), he cannot/should not know my every choice,
since that would defeat the purpose of choice and free agency.

If God had "perfect foreknowledge," why would He rejoice over
"every soul that repenteth"?  Think about it!  If He knew
everything beforehand, there was nothing to rejoice about,
since that person's repentance was forthcoming anyway.
I know there is a passage in Jeremiah, where the Lord was
pleasantly surprised that His covenant people did not reject
Him for a change, but followed His precepts and commandments.
If God was omniscient, why would He feint surprise or joy?

Here's another one that refutes absolute foreknowledge: God
Himself would know what He would do, tomorrow, next week, in
a million years.  (I realize that "time" is "only measured to
mortals," but no matter how eternal/God's existance looks
like, there will still be a sequence or order in which events
take place.)  --Absolute foreknowledge would make God's
existance pretty boring: everything has already been known
and "determined," from everlasting to everlasting.  This
smacks of a very static, non-creative and passive universe,
without any surprises, expectations (since everything is long
since "known") or emotions.  In fact, things and God would
just go "through the motions" --literally, and without choice.

Based on my understanding of the Scriptures, I reject such a
doctrine as Biblical.  It is a false and illogical concept.

Casper.   isscck@byu.vm.edu
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,alt.atheism