Your post has nothing to do with the SPECIFIC questions I asked. For the time being I could not care less if God is omniscient or not. Just WHAT is this omniscience you speak of?
Sorry – I expected to you be able to make inferences and draw conclusions based on what you read. My mistake.
OK, then – I’ll walk you through it: if God exists within the constraints of time, then ‘omniscience’ means nothing more than ‘special power’ or ‘parlor trick’. On the other hand, if God is outside of time, ‘omniscience’ takes on a different meaning. From a Christian perspective, God exists outside of the constraints of time – in fact, He created time and space! Therefore, ‘omniscience’ means ‘being able to see all of time from a position outside of time’.
Does that help? Hope so.
Now that I’ve helped you read my post, help me read yours. After all, you use the term ‘non-existence’ in a way that’s completely insufficient for our purposes here. You’re positing a that you exist at some time t[sub]0[/sub]. You ask about a book that may (or may not) be on your desk at some later time (let’s call it t[sub]2[/sub]). By non-existence, do you mean:
- that the book exists at time t[sub]0[/sub] or not?
- that the book, if it exists at t[sub]0[/sub], simply isn’t present on the table at that time? If so, do you mean that this book is placed on the table sometime between t[sub]0[/sub] and t[sub]2[/sub]?
- that the book comes into existence (i.e., is published) at some time between t[sub]0[/sub] and t[sub]2[/sub] (let’s call the time of publication t[sub]1[/sub])?
- if you mean that the book comes into existence at t[sub]1[/sub], do you mean that it will be on the table at time t[sub]2[/sub]?
- do you mean that, regardless what time the book comes into existence, it never gets placed on your table?
- do you mean that that book is never published?
I think you don’t even need to answer these questions: I’ll just go ahead and inform you what the results of your thought experiment are, for each of them. It’s easier that way than waiting for you to insult me.
Since we’re talking about a God who exists outside of time, He doesn’t experience ‘contingency’ like you and I do. (We can discuss this assertion, if you like, but I’d ask you to do your research first. That way, we’ll avoid all the histrionics.) Since we’re talking about the Christian God, this means that, as a starting point, we define him as omniscient and infallible. Therefore, if he observes what is on the table at time t[sub]2[/sub], then he is making this observation outside of time and this observation is, by definition, unable to be false. As a result, the contingency that you experience at times t[sub]0[/sub] and t[sub]1[/sub] are not experienced by God: at both times, God is aware of the contents of the tabletop at t=t[sub]2[/sub]. Therefore, the first four questions are easily enough answered: God sees the state of affairs at t[sub]2[/sub], and therefore, ‘contingency’ is not a problem. Let’s look at the last two questions. If the book comes into existence after t[sub]2[/sub], then asking the question “what does God know about that book?” is illogical: there is no circumstance under which that book will be on the table at t[sub]2[/sub]. If the book is never published, then the same logic applies. These, then, would be the question of whether God knows counterfactuals. However, that question is not what you proposed in your original thought experiment: the dice exist, so God will know what you throw. (We experience this as if it were the case that “at all times, God knows what you will throw when you throw the dice”, but God experiences it immediately and atemporally.)
There we go! If there’s a case I missed, please tell me. If not, please take my advice: read up a bit, ok?
