StarryNight

Omniscience is impossible in the world we live in.
This is because human's knowledge is limited, and God would (by knowing things we know as we know them) be thus limited also.

Luke.

MxM111

According to the bible, we are created in image of god. I always had a question, which part we are crated "in his image". We definitely can't look like him (he can assume any shape and size, plus the father, son and holly spirit thingies) We are not omniscient as him, not omnipotent, so which part we are closer to him, rather then to, say, gorillas?

gstafleu

Interesting argument. God, as an omnimax being, should be able to exhibit the same limitations as we do, otherwise he falls short in the omnipotence division of the omnimax business. If however God is necessarily not limited then he can necessarily not be limited like we are. In that case there is something our omnipotent being cannot do, and we have a logical contradiction. Omnimax outtahere, provided omnimax means unlimited, which it probably does.

Of course you can try to weasel out from under this by saying that God could somehow "fake" our limitations, while knowing better at the same time. But that doesn't count. Omnipotence requires that He can really be as limited as we are. And he can't. So there.

MxM111

I somehow do not understand this logic. How our knowing or not knowing about something can limit that something? We can imagine very fast speed, but not even close to the speed of light. But the fact that we can't imagine it, does not limit the speed of light at the value that we can imagine.

A bit unrelated question, but about speed of light Can god move stone faster than speed of light? Can god enter and exit a black hole in physical form in limited for external observer time?

illuminati11_13

The standard Thomistic response is that God does not know things in the same way that humans know them. Humans know things in the same way that God knows them, only imperfectly. All things come from God's Word (intellect) so He knows them by default. Human intellect can only informed by sense knowledge and a-priori beliefs (that is, instinct or divine inspiration.) The limiting aspects of man's mind is unique to him.

I hope this answers your question too. Man is created in the image of God in the sense that, like God, he as reason, albeit imperfect, and like God, he has a will, albeit imperfect. Man is an imperfect imitation of God.

God is not unlimited in the unqualified sense of the word. Being the origin of the existence of everthing He has control over everthing that exists to the extent that it exists. God can do anything that is not metaphysicaly impossible.

Bartender

:worried:

StarryNight

My knowledge is limited, so that limit's Gods.
Consider the analogy:
A King claims his wealth is all encompassing, and that it is pure gold.
His subjects however only have silver or copper (limited awareness). Hence the King's claim is false.


Luke.

Starlock

It makes no sense to say that just because human knowledge is limited, so is that if deity. Because, by definition, the divine (in most understandings of the term) is fundamentally BEYOND human comprehension. It is a thing that is at least in part, ineffable... and also a thing not constrained by our own biased and self-absorbed views of the cosmos. Omniscience is certainly possible, nay, the fact of things if you view deity in a Pantheistic or Panentheistic light.

modernPrimitive

Just because you have a copper coin in your pocket does not mean that evryone has a copper coin in their pocket.

WishboneDawn

I don't get the logic here either.