Does God know all our thoughts?

[CB_Catholic]

:yup: The Enemy can’t read our minds, nor does he have to - he simply has to observe us and our tendencies and take it from there.

I was reading a book about exorcism and an exorcist stated that Satan cannot read our minds, but he is a very acute observer and far more intelligent than us, and can pretty well figure out what is going on in our minds (not the actual words). That pretty well fits in with your statement.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Do Guardian Angles know our thoughts and intentions? How else could they be our spiritual guardians if not?

 

[Bwtby]

I was reading a book about exorcism and an exorcist stated that Satan cannot read our minds, but he is a very acute observer and far more intelligent than us, and can pretty well figure out what is going on in our minds (not the actual words). That pretty well fits in with your statement.

But how can one creature be omnipresent like God himself? How can the devil himself be everywhere to try to trick all at once?

 

[ready]

Robert, because God is God he knows everthing, which includes our every thought. The Devil does not have this same ability because he is a mere creature. He can surmise what we are thinking and tries to, but he doesn’t know all our thoughts, like God does. Our Guardian Angels are very intelligent creatures like the Devil, but as creatures they only know as much as God allows them to know. I would imagine God would allow them to know all our thoughts, though, in order that they might properly enlighten, guard, rule and guide us. I’d be interested in knowing if they do for sure though.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Robert, because God is God he knows everthing, which includes our every thought. The Devil does not have this same ability because he is a mere creature. He can surmise what we are thinking and tries to, but he doesn’t know all our thoughts, like God does. Our Guardian Angels are very intelligent creatures like the Devil, but as creatures they only know as much as God allows them to know. I would imagine God would allow them to know all our thoughts, though, in order that they might properly enlighten, guard, rule and guide us. I’d be interested in knowing if they do for sure though.

But God could give Satan the power to know all our thoughts. If God allows Satan to exist, and allows Satan to have all sorts of power over us, whose to say He does not also allow Satan to know our thoughts and intentions? Keep in mind the Lucifer was referred to as the Prince of Light. That sounds like he had a lot of knowledge, perhaps the knowledge of our thoughts and intentions.

 

[ready]

But God could give Satan the power to know all our thoughts. If God allows Satan to exist, and allows Satan to have all sorts of power over us, whose to say He does not also allow Satan to know our thoughts and intentions? Keep in mind the Lucifer was referred to as the Prince of Light. That sounds like he had a lot of knowledge, perhaps the knowledge of our thoughts and intentions.

Yes, but I’ve heard and read that Satan does not have this power … from good Catholic sources. Satan can read certain things about us, like the changes in our body and other natural things like that, but he does not know what is going on in our minds with any certainty. He has not been given the power to read minds.

If you still do not believe me I recommend that you ask an apologist about this subject.

 

[CB_Catholic]

But how can one creature be omnipresent like God himself? How can the devil himself be everywhere to try to trick all at once?

Actually, when people refer to Satan in the context of Evil, mostly they are talking about the giant army of fallen angels he commands that do his bidding rather than the entity himself, who is not omnipresent like God himself. He is the commander in chief. Much like one would say a certain General attacked an area during war. The General most likely was giving the commands, the troops were doing the work. So correctly it should be called Satan and his minions, but we commonly say “Satan” or “the devil”, to refer to the whole realm of the evil one. Since they are angels, they do have a heirarchy, and he is their leader.

 

[Bwtby]

Actually, when people refer to Satan in the context of Evil, mostly they are talking about the giant army of fallen angels he commands that do his bidding rather than the entity himself, who is not omnipresent like God himself. He is the commander in chief. Much like one would say a certain General attacked an area during war. The General most likely was giving the commands, the troops were doing the work. So correctly it should be called Satan and his minions, but we commonly say “Satan” or “the devil”, to refer to the whole realm of the evil one. Since they are angels, they do have a heirarchy, and he is their leader.

I like that.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Yes, but I’ve heard and read that Satan does not have this power … from good Catholic sources. Satan can read certain things about us, like the changes in our body and other natural things like that, but he does not know what is going on in our minds with any certainty. He has not been given the power to read minds.

If you still do not believe me I recommend that you ask an apologist about this subject.

Hi Ready;

I’m just a little surprised that people can ascertain the answer to this question so definitively without it coming from Church Doctrine or the Holy Bible. I mean, who are we to know for sure? And who are the apologist that they could know for sure? It sounds like guesswork to me.

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Hi Ready;

I’m just a little surprised that people can ascertain the answer to this question so definitively without it coming from Church Doctrine or the Holy Bible. I mean, who are we to know for sure? And who are the apologist that they could know for sure? It sounds like guesswork to me.

Robert, good comment.

I am amazed sometimes at the level of detail we seem to know definitively, things that God never told us but we have extrapolated from a few vague references here and there or maybe based on private revelation or other unreliable source.

Anyone who really thinks they know these things should consider an exercise that my Spiritual Director once gave me: read Job 37-42.

Alan

 

[FCEGM]

Hi Ready;

I’m just a little surprised that people can ascertain the answer to this question so definitively without it coming from Church Doctrine or the Holy Bible. I mean, who are we to know for sure? And who are the apologist that they could know for sure? It sounds like guesswork to me.

The great St. Thomas Aquinas, for one:

I answer that, A secret thought can be known in two ways: first, in its effect. In this way it can be known not only by an angel, but also by man; and with so much the greater subtlety according as the effect is the more hidden. For thought is sometimes discovered not merely by outward act, but also by change of countenance; and doctors can tell some passions of the soul by the mere pulse. Much more then can angels, or even demons, the more deeply they penetrate those occult bodily modifications. Hence Augustine says (De divin. daemon.) that demons “sometimes with the greatest faculty learn man’s dispositions, not only when expressed by speech, but even when conceived in thought, when the soul expresses them by certain signs in the body”; although (Retract. ii, 30) he says “it cannot be asserted how this is done.”

. . . In another way thoughts can be known as they are in the mind, and affections as they are in the will: and thus God alone can know the thoughts of hearts and affections of wills. The reason of this is, because the rational creature is subject to God only, and He alone can work in it Who is its principal object and last end: this will be developed later (Question [63], Article [1]; Question [105], Article [5]). Consequently all that is in the will, and all things that depend only on the will, are known to God alone. Now it is evident that it depends entirely on the will for anyone actually to consider anything; because a man who has a habit of knowledge, or any intelligible species, uses them at will. Hence the Apostle says (1 Cor. 2:11): “For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him?”

ccel.org/a/aquinas/summa/FP/FP057.html#FPQ57A4THEP1

The late philosopher Mortimer Adler presents Thomas’ teaching this way:

The ideas by which an angel knows itself are such that they enable an angel to know not only all lower angels, burt also everything that all lower angels know. It also can know higher angels, but not everything that higher angels know.

Angelic knowledge and understanding extends to the physical cosmos - the world of corporeal things. The inferior and limited hman intellect is able to know such things by sense-experience. reflectio, and reasoning. A fortiori, angels are able to know and understand such things better by knowing them intuitively by means of the innate ideas God implanted in their created natures. . .

. . .Being finite and, therefore, not omniscient, the angelic intellect is subject to certain limitations. Here, the philosopher must turn to the theologian to learn what knowledge belongs only to God because of Divine omniscience.

In addition to God’s knowledge of himself, in which angels can participate only supernaturally through grace and not naturally by their own innate ideas, Divine knowledge includes two things that are beyond the natural knowledge of angels. One is what will happen in the temporal future of the cosmos. The other is what goes on in the hearts and minds of men, The Angels and Us, pp. 136-137.

 

[ready]

Hi Ready;

I’m just a little surprised that people can ascertain the answer to this question so definitively without it coming from Church Doctrine or the Holy Bible. I mean, who are we to know for sure? And who are the apologist that they could know for sure? It sounds like guesswork to me.

It must just be guesswork. I just read from some good source that the devil can read some of our thoughts. I had once heard from a reliable priest that the devil can make judgements about what we are thinking based on the changes in our body that he observes when we get angry, sad, etc.; based on our past behaviors; and based on what he hears us say. I know that the Bible says that God can read our hearts and knows our inmost thoughts, and so I know for sure that He has this ability. And I figured because the good angels are his agents he can let them know anything about us to help us. But now I really don’t know what to think about the devil. Now I think he could possibly read some of of our thoughts.

 

[ready]

The Church teaches us that God is omniscient so I know He knows all our thoughts. The devil isn’t omniscient but I know he can still be gifted with special powers that God allows him to have. Maybe he can “read powerfully into things” with his powers without having the ability to have direct access to our every thought. He is only a creature with special powers, after all; and creatures are not God and are only endowed with the powers God gives them. Adam and Eve had special powers that they lost after the fall - maybe the devil lost part of his angelic powers too after his fall.

I truly doubt that he has access to our every thought. Why? Because if the devil could read all of Jesus’ thoughts (and Jesus was as much a Man as He was God) would the devil have even dared to attempt to tempt Him in ther desert? Jesus knew in His Own Mind that He was God - the devil didn’t even have knowledge of this (based on exegesis). And it has been said in homilies that the devil even thought that Jesus was defeated on the cross - the devil thought he had a true victory over Jesus and over us poor souls held captive. Now if the devil knew what was going on in the Mind of Jesus he would have known that it was Jesus who held the victory, not himself. Things like this tell us that the devil has very limited ability when it comes to reading human minds. Stories from exorcists would prove very helpful I believe.

 

[ready]

From “The Strategy of the Devil in Demonic Temptations” by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J… (Fr. Hardon is very trustworthy.)

“The devil knows us very well. He cannot read our secret thoughts but he can conclude to our inner spirit by our external behavior, and even, as exorcists tell me, the emotional expressions on our face. When St. Peter tells us not to be afraid of the evil spirit he means more than meets the eye. He means that we should not even show by our emotions that we are afraid of the devil. Our emotional expressions, in what we say, how we react, how we allow our feelings to manifest themselves in our bodies – all of these are dangerous in dealing with the devil. We must not only be at peace inside, but manifest a peaceful attitude in our external behavior. The devil is especially influential in mastering those who are afraid of him.”

 

[Shin]

'Just then the devil appeared. The Lord said to him: “You were created by me and beheld all justice in me. Tell me whether this new bride is legitimately mine by proven right! I allow you to see and understand her heart in order that you may know how to answer me. Does she love anything else as she does me or would she take anything in exchange for me?” The devil answered him: “She loves nothing in the way she loves you. Rather than lose you she would undergo any torment, provided you gave her the virtue of patience. I see a kind of bond of fire descending from you to her that ties her heart so much to you that she thinks of and loves nothing but you.”

Then the Lord said to the devil: “Tell me what you feel in your heart and how you like this great love I have for her.” The devil replied and said: "I have two eyes, one of them corporeal, although I am not corporeal, by means of which I perceive temporal things so clearly that there is none so hidden or so dark that it can hide itself from me. The second eye is a spiritual one with which I see every pain no matter how slight and can understand to which sin it pertains. There is no sin so tenuous and slight that I do not see it, unless it has been purged by penance. However, although there are no organs more sensitive than the eyes, still I would much rather have two burning torches uninterruptedly penetrate my eyes than for her to see with the eyes of her spirit.

I also have two ears. One of them is corporeal, and no one speaks so privately that I do not hear and know it with this ear. The second is a spiritual ear, and no thinks of or aims at any sin, be it ever so hidden, that I do not hear it with this ear, unless it has been blotted out by penance. There is a certain punishment in hell that is like a bubbling torrent, streaming out of a terribly hot fire. I would rather suffer this to flow in and out of my ears with out cease than that she should hear anything with the ears of her spirit. I also have a spiritual heart. I would let it be ceaselessly cut to pieces and constantly renewed to be punished again just in order for her heart to grow cold in your love. But, now, since you deal straightly, let me ask a question for you to answer me: Tell me, why do you love her so much, and why did you not choose someone holier, richer, and prettier for yourself?" The Lord answered: "Because that is what justice demanded. You were created in me and beheld all justice in me.

Tell me, while she is listening, why it was just that you fell so far and what you were thinking when you fell!" The devil answered: “I saw three things in you: I saw your glory and honor above all things, and I thought about my own glory. Hence I was determined in my pride not merely to be equal to you but even greater than you. Second, I saw that you were the most powerful of all. Hence I longed to be more powerful than you. Third, I saw what was to be in the future and, since your glory and honor were without beginning and would be with out end, I envied you and thought that I would gladly be tortured forever with all manner of harsh punishments if only you could die. With such thoughts I fell. And in that way hell was created.”’

• The Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden