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Omniscience
- Thread starter atanu
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Shuddhasattva
Well-Known Member
I feel the best way to interpret this is through digital physics and brane cosmology, which I garble as follows; God can be conceptualized (rarely a good idea, and always incomplete) as that layer which, though permeating every other 'layer' of reality, reposes beyond their limitations and particular processes & patterns.
The basal layer where everything happens at once, has already happened, and never occurs.
The basal layer where everything happens at once, has already happened, and never occurs.
Brilliant. :clap
What physicists say of brane cosmology vis-a-vis determinism?
Pegg
Jehovah our God is One
Omniscient means he is 'all-knowing' ....it is in the sense that nothing can be hidden from him
The scriptures describe this omniscience in this way:
Hebrews 4:13 And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting
Psalm 90:8 You have set our errors right in front of you, Our hidden things before your bright face.
Proverbs 15:11 She′ol and [the place of] destruction are in front of Jehovah. How much more so the hearts of the sons of mankind!
Romans 2:16 This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare
Jeremiah 17:10 'I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the kidneys, even to give to each one according to his ways...'
it means every act, our very thoughts/motives & desires are known to God....he knows what you are thinking right now as you read this.
The scriptures describe this omniscience in this way:
Hebrews 4:13 And there is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting
Psalm 90:8 You have set our errors right in front of you, Our hidden things before your bright face.
Proverbs 15:11 She′ol and [the place of] destruction are in front of Jehovah. How much more so the hearts of the sons of mankind!
Romans 2:16 This will be in the day when God through Christ Jesus judges the secret things of mankind, according to the good news I declare
Jeremiah 17:10 'I, Jehovah, am searching the heart, examining the kidneys, even to give to each one according to his ways...'
it means every act, our very thoughts/motives & desires are known to God....he knows what you are thinking right now as you read this.
He knows all that it is possible to know--obviously including things beyond human comprehension.What is meant when it is said that the God is omniscient? I do have a view that I am reserving for discussion after the basic definitions and concepts develop.
I invite everyone to please define the term, preferably illustrated with examples.
Thanks.
Orias
Left Hand Path
What is meant when it is said that the God is omniscient? I do have a view that I am reserving for discussion after the basic definitions and concepts develop.
I invite everyone to please define the term, preferably illustrated with examples.
Thanks.
That he is capable of creating this with the knowledge of what the ingredients will create and potentially develop into.
The Abrahamic deity's level of power and knowledge has the tendency to change with the interpretation of the various writers, and seems to increase over time. For not unrelated reasons, the character of superman had power creep in the comics over time and had to be reigned in once in a while in order to make plausible threats possible.
Here's an early example:
Genesis 18: 20-21
Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
Different translations all say essential the same thing. The Lord has to "go down and see" and "will know", implying that it does not have instantaneous eternal perfect knowledge of all time and space. Instead, it's depicted as an entity that can receive prayers but then has to take active steps if it desires to further understand a situation, much like how finite gods of various pantheons were thought to operate. The idea that this entity has a perfectly intimate close relationship with each individual on the planet was developed later.
apophenia
Well-Known Member
I have a much simpler interpretation than what I usually encounter.
First off - I rarely ever use the word 'god', because of the excess baggage which generally renders the word worse than useless
However, when I have used that term in a positive way, I use it to refer to the 'being' which is present and foundational in every experience, as opposed to the momentary behaviors of the mind which identify as "I".
So in that sense, 'god' is the experiencer of whatever is experienced, and thus everything 'known' is known by 'god'. Omniscience then means that everything which is 'known' (experienced) is known by the pervasive being.
Generally speaking though, I find these kinds of definitions pointless and irrelevant unless they are a way of recognising and abiding in the 'being' who knows.
First off - I rarely ever use the word 'god', because of the excess baggage which generally renders the word worse than useless
However, when I have used that term in a positive way, I use it to refer to the 'being' which is present and foundational in every experience, as opposed to the momentary behaviors of the mind which identify as "I".
So in that sense, 'god' is the experiencer of whatever is experienced, and thus everything 'known' is known by 'god'. Omniscience then means that everything which is 'known' (experienced) is known by the pervasive being.
Generally speaking though, I find these kinds of definitions pointless and irrelevant unless they are a way of recognising and abiding in the 'being' who knows.
ratikala
Istha gosthi
all knowing , but not through the interlect , but through his omnipresence and omnipotency .
I do have a view that I am reserving for discussion after the basic definitions and concepts develop.
I invite everyone to please define the term, preferably illustrated with examples.
Thanks.
an example ???
not sure if you will count this as an example ? , more reasoning ......
being that god (by whichever name or definition) is symultaniously omnipitent , omnipresent and omnipotent , ....he is the source , the motivating force , the prime action and the conciousness which permiates all being , therefore he is all knowing
he is the question and the answer , he is all .
Siddhartha Plotinus
Member
What is meant when it is said that the God is omniscient? I do have a view that I am reserving for discussion after the basic definitions and concepts develop.
I invite everyone to please define the term, preferably illustrated with examples.
Thanks.
One can not be omniscient and self aware, or else everything that will be has already played out in ones mind making anything created pointless to this being, a movie, or if going by the typical Judaeo/Christian/Islamic God who offers eternity of either suffering or bliss, a horror film. Therefore to be omniscient, one must be unaware of itself.
Just to throw in an unconventional perspective...
I do not tend to use the "omni" terms, but in a polytheistic context, I may use them in a relative sense to describe the pervasiveness of a particular deity within my experience of reality. For example, in Greek mythology, Helius is an oracular deity because his position in the cosmos allows him to see and watch significantly more than many other gods. That makes Helius relatively omniscient, particularly with respect to events occurring during the daytime on earth's surface.
I do not tend to use the "omni" terms, but in a polytheistic context, I may use them in a relative sense to describe the pervasiveness of a particular deity within my experience of reality. For example, in Greek mythology, Helius is an oracular deity because his position in the cosmos allows him to see and watch significantly more than many other gods. That makes Helius relatively omniscient, particularly with respect to events occurring during the daytime on earth's surface.
Sir Doom
Cooler than most of you
What is meant when it is said that the God is omniscient? I do have a view that I am reserving for discussion after the basic definitions and concepts develop.
I invite everyone to please define the term, preferably illustrated with examples.
Thanks.
To me, omniscience describes a being that knows everything.
Reality to this being (if my imagination serves me well) would seem much more like a solid object. Everything 'happens' at once to this being. If it were to focus on say, a human being. It would watch the egg and the sperm develop in the parents at the same time it witnessed their bones crumble beyond discernment. That would be one static 'object' to this being. If you add all the rest of reality back in (which this being must be able to do) it probably looks like a solid rock. Each piece from start to finish present along with everything else. It also knows exactly why all the pieces look the way they do and all of the other ways they might have looked if things had gone differently (or if they go differently somewhere else, as well).
Yes. But suppose, a deity pervades Helius and other deities?
I understand this similarly. But does not the Omniscience word also indicate per-knowledge?
There is some parallel in a scripture called Yoga Vasista. Where does this rock like reality exist?
That's lovely; but having a particular understanding of omniscience and none of physics, I am more tempted to interpret brane cosmology through this than the other way around.
Thanks for the image of branes. (mmmm, branes)
Same here. I agree.