Does God have a first-person point of view like us?

[Ben_Sinner]

I was driving today and a thought I had blew my mind.

Each one of us can only perceive things from our own first-person POV. We can only see what is in front of our eyeballs and we can’t see our face (without looking in a mirror)

A 6 B

Take a look at this diagram here.

Person A, would see a 6 from their point of view. Person B would see a 9 from their point of view.

These are both “sights” that are different from each other and relative to where the seer is located at…I was wondering what God would see the number as? Would it be 6? 9?..all the other possible angles?

Basically I’m asking, from what POV would God see physical things in?

What would be the objective, default, positioning of this number?.. since it eventually has to have one if it truly exists as external matter outside of our mind.

 

[dshix]

God doesn’t have a physical body, aside from the body of Christ, so He doesn’t really have a “point of view” in the same sense that we do.

Really, we understand the whole concept of “point of view” as a material thing. There is a way to define it as a non-material thing, but I think the kind of “point of view” you are talking about is the kind that comes as a consequence of the **location **of the viewer.

God, being spiritual, and not being in any one place but in all places always, does not have a “point of view” in the same sense.

Rather, God sees all things simultaneously with the sight of His intellect. He can “see” a particular thing by thinking about it, and knows everything about that thing’s nature, location, etc.

In regards to your example of the seeing of the 6 or 9: God would see the shape of the drawing, and know it could be seen as either a 6 or 9 according to our number system, but since He is not looking at it from a physical angle, the question is moot in regard to which one he sees.

So the answer to your question: No, God does not have a first-person view of material things, except in the person of Jesus Christ, who has a physical body. If Jesus were there at the table, looking at the number, though, He would have a point of view and would see either a 6 or a 9.

 

[dshix]

One more thing I might add, just for fun:

Those who have the Beatific Vision and see God are also given, by that Beatific Vision, an intellectual sight of all of God’s effects. What does this mean? This means that when you look upon God in the Beatific Vision, you will be able to see and know everything about all creation.

You won’t need to physically stand in front of an object to look at it (though if the object still exists in the New Earth you will be able to instantly transport yourself there due to the resurrected body’s agility), but will be able to look upon the thing’s nature and aspects, seeing it more fully and completely with your intellect than you ever could with your physical eyes.

So, essentially, in Heaven, the Saints no longer are stuck with only their own first person “point of view”, but also share in God’s intellectual vision of all created things.

 

[Aloysium]

It is interesting to think about physical things as being seen from a point of view. Vision is important to quantatively describe something. But, perhaps touch, taste and smell are better at telling us what something is in itself, what God knows, in addition to counting all the hairs on our head. We can’t forget sound; music is wonderful.

 

[John_Martin]

Only if person B were upside down would he see a 9.

God’s name is the first person ‘I AM’

To see himself, God speaks himself, and then there is the Word, the Son, so he sees himself as he is, in his Son. And the Son knows himself in seeing the Father.

Both persons let us know the name, ‘I AM’. In his human being, Jesus’ name in English is ‘I AM SAVING’.

Every time you see the word LORD in the Bible, swap it out with ‘I AM’.
There seems to be a strange closeness to God when you read it this way.
‘I AM’ is my shepherd, I shall not want… and I will dwell in the house of ‘I AM’ forever"