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| Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Theological Q&A > What does it mean for God to know something? | Forum Quick Jump
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leth
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2002
Total Posts : 26
| Posted 7/18/2002 3:46 PM (GMT -6) |   | We say that God knows all things. We all agree that God knows all things in the current state of affairs, and so let's look at that. Now, all of you well-read people may already know the answer to the following difficulties, but either way I would appreciate your help with what to do with them.
We say that God is omniscient, knows all things, and that no other being does. Clearly, without giving the matter any thought, I think that we would all say that for God to "know that it is the case that X" is different than God to "believe that it is the case that X".
However, consider solipsism. God clearly knows that he exists. However, in what way could God be different than ourselves such that he can know that it is not the case that all that he sees and experiences is not the trick of the classic "malevolent demon"?
I seem to have heard it said that God's omniscience is supposed to be qualified as, "God correctly knows the truth value of all true propositions", but for what non-arbitrary reason to we suppose this to be the case?
Yet regardless of your answer to this, consider again in what way "know that it is the case that X" is different than "believe it to be the case that X". Even considering all true propositions, how does God know that he accurately knows them as true propositions? Is it not more accurate to say that God believes them to all be true propositions?
No doubt God has good inductive reasons to believe that he is accurate if he has never been proven wrong, but that does not seem very comforting. Does God being eteranl help us? Perhaps we can suppose that God has tested all of his beliefs infinitely many times; is this reasonable? What would be involved in God "testing" his own beliefs? Would he create all possible states of affairs and manipulate each in all possible ways to see if held a correct belief? Do we want to SAY that God has done this though?
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