Friday, June 26, 2009

Omnipotence vs Omniscience

Omnipotence has several definitions. A basic understanding of omnipotence is that it is unlimited power. This means that the deity is able to do anything. Sometimes people place limitations on omnipotence, such as only being able to do what is logically possible [so no rocks they can't lift or hot dogs they can't eat] or that it is only able to do something that is in accord to its own nature [example on wikipedia is if everything the deity says is truth then it is impossible for it to lie]. But the limitations are sometimes ignored, so people may believe that the deity is capable of doing even the logically impossible.

Omniscience can be understood as actually knowing everything there is and can be known. This means all past, present, and future facts are known by the entity. There can also be a limitation placed on this, such as the deity only has an ability to know anything that it chooses to know and can be known.

The problem is that the two seem to actually exclude each other. If God was omniscient, then he would be able to know everything. So this leads to the question, can God actually change anything with his omnipotence? Since God already knows what he is going to do, and that it has to happen, it appears as though God cannot actually change the events that transpire. If God can change the events without knowing that the change was going to occur then his omniscience would be limited.

No comments:

Post a Comment