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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 7/12/2004 2:23 PM (GMT -6) |   | Just finished The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience by Clifford A. Pickover (Ph.D. from Yale in Molecular Biology I think).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312294115/qid=1089677076/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5166068-5230231?v=glance&s=books
He goes through six or so 'paradoxes' that show the incompatibilities associated with omniscience. Pickover is not a believer. He's apparently an atheist. I was interested in how omniscience is viewed by others who don't believe. Interesting. I was most saddened by the fact that throughout the book the only understanding of "omniscience" he works with is that which assumes God knows the future exclusively in terms of what shall and shall not come to pass. This IS omniscience by definition. So problems associated with such exclusively "shall" and "shall not" knowledge also get associated with "omniscience." Although written in 2001 he shows absolutley no knowledge of the debate over open theism. Sad, because it seemed to me that some of his reasons for being an atheist are those incompaibilities and paradoxes he feels follow from believing in an all-knowing God.
Tom | | Back to Top | | |
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 7/13/2004 3:34 AM (GMT -6) | | I'm on the road right now, Lee, but I'll try to summarize one or two as soon as I can. They're only "difficult" at all if one assumes that the future is not open and/or God's knowledge of it is exhaustively definite, that is, excludes knowledge of any true "might and might not" propositions.
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Sisters of Cain
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2004
Total Posts : 431
| Posted 7/13/2004 3:38 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by TGB
I'm on the road right now
Watch for cars!!!!!!
crossing the highway late last night, shoulda looked left and shoulda looked right, he didn't see the station wagon car, the skunk got squashed and there you are | | Back to Top | | |
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Sisters of Cain
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2004
Total Posts : 431
| Posted 7/13/2004 7:07 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by Lee Merrill
quote:
Originally posted by Sisters of Cain
quote:
Originally posted by TGB
I'm on the road right now
Watch for cars!!!!!!
Didn't realize you were in motion! Let's make this a timing pattern, I will post aiming at Washington and Sixth Street, assuming you don't miss any traffic lights...
The things you find on the road these days. 
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 7/13/2004 10:38 AM (GMT -6) | | Sisters: The things you find on the road these days.
Tom: So are you saying my theology is equivalet to road kill?  | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 7/13/2004 11:02 AM (GMT -6) | | What's this about foreknowledge and traffic lights???
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 7/13/2004 11:05 AM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 7/13/2004 11:18 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by TGB
I was most saddened by the fact that throughout the book the only understanding of "omniscience" he works with is that which assumes God knows the future exclusively in terms of what shall and shall not come to pass.
Just like "3+4=7" can be rewritten "7-4=3," so we can look at the above.
- ...the ..."omniscience" he works with is (where) the future (is known) exclusively in terms of what shall and shall not come to pass
- what shall and shall not come to pass
- what shall and shall not ...exclu(des) all other understanding/meaning
Personally, FWIW, I think that consideration of God as creator and all else as creature shows this to be too narrow, and even reductivist. For that reason I like the thread-title "God's purpose..."
Since the opening scenes of Biblical drama include not only our parents and their free will, but also their "first job" we should not accept any ridgid idea of the "future" as being already determined.
I have absolutley no problem with saying that God foreknows all. But as creator of creation "HOW" that is accomplished is simply beyond me. But the task is what, as Eccesiastes says, what I can put my "hand to."
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Sisters of Cain
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2004
Total Posts : 431
| Posted 7/13/2004 11:28 AM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by TGB
Sisters: The things you find on the road these days.
Tom: So are you saying my theology is equivalet to road kill?
No, there aren't any skid marks before your theology....
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