What does omniscience mean?: Philosophy Forums

What does omniscience mean?

Lenglain
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Posted 07/16/06 - 09:04 PM: Subject: What does omniscience mean?	#1
If God is omnipresent, does that mean that the three dimensions of space, and the dimensions of time don't exist to him? Wouldn't they dissapear to someone who was ominpresent across space, and across time? For example, what if god asked us to draw him an apple? Once he got the drawing, wouldn't he say something like "What?! You've been lazy, you've only drawn one-side of the apple!! I want a drawing of THE WHOLE APPLE!" Wouldn't that be the complaint of a power that was omnipresent throughout space? And then, what about a power omnipresent through time? Wouldn't he say "What??! you're a lazy piece of creation!! You've only drawn one side of the apple, AND one possible occurence in time!! I want the complete representation of the apple across space and time!" I hope I'm clear, I'm a bit confused myself. But how much truth can be imparted to a possible omniscient view of the world?

Stinky Malinky
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Posted 07/17/06 - 01:31 AM:	#2
Perhaps if god were omnipresent and omnitemporal, but not omniscient he might react in the way you describe. If he were omniscient the he would understand that to humans drawing a picture means to draw a momentary two dimensional representation. That said I think you have made some interesting speculations on what it might be like to be omnipresent and omnitemporal.

jmasclef
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Posted 07/17/06 - 06:39 AM:	#3
In presence of an apple, do you consider it out of you, in a single face, a single shot ? The apple and space around are inside your mind, you own the whole scene; not in a moment but in a continuous field. Doesn't it look like a form of omnipresence ? I wonder what sort of sience could appear from omnipresence and omnipotence. What attention would become in such a context ? Is thought possible without attention ? Is knowledge possible without thought ?
"All knowledge degenerates into probability" - D. Hume

nixnxin
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Posted 07/17/06 - 07:29 AM:	#4
I agree with Stinky, regardless of whether an omniscient being would be atemporal or aspatial, he or she would have to view, or be aware of, the spatial and temporal ways the apple is, since those are among all the ways an apple is, and of which an omniscient being should be aware of. For example, small and big, young and old, green and red, fresh and rotten etc. So the set of all possible views includes contradicting ways in one and the same respects. Even for an atemporal and aspatial being. Yet no knowledge can be derived from contradictions in one and the same respects, and a drawing of all the ways the apple is would neither depict any of its ways, nor would it resemble an apple. Atemporailty and aspatiality won´t make omniscience possible. So to answer Lenglain´s question: ..how much truth can be imparted to a possible omniscient view of the world? None.

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