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God and Omniscience

Dr Steve MakinDepartment of Philosophy

University of Sheffield

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Two types of temporal property

• [1] Tenses: those which change as time passes (eg now, soon, present, past)• [2] Dates: those which don’t change

as time passes (eg being earlier than, happening in 1977)

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Two types of spatial property

• Those which alter as you move around in space (eg being far away, being right here)• Those which don’t alter as you move

around in space (eg being within the boundaries of Sydney)

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Three plausible thoughts?

[O] What it is to be omniscient is to know everything that can be known

[A] God cannot know the tense of any event

[B] Particular human beings at particular times do know the tenses of lots of events

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Resist [A]?

Contrast(i) God as atemporal (present at no time)(ii) God as omnitemporal (present at all

times)So perhaps drop [A] for...?[~A] God can know the tense of an event

(indeed God knows that every event has every tense)

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[B]: things I know now

That Elvis’ death is past (inconsistent with [O] and [A])That Elvis’ death is past, and neither future nor present (inconsistent with [O] and [~A])

Next move?

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Resist [B]?

Perhaps what you know isn’t really that Elvis’ death is past?

Contrast(a) I think Elvis’ death is past, but I’m

wrong(b) What I really know is that Elvis’

death is earlier than 2013

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So?

Then we could make progress with the idea that God’s omniscience consists in his knowing everything that can be known.But is knowing that Elvis’ death is past ‘really’ knowing that Elvis’ death is earlier than 2013?

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A closing example

The best way foward? Another example (the ravine):

(i) I know that help arrives at noon(ii) I know that help arrives in 30

minutes(iii) I know what time it is now

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Two engaging questions

Either• Would an omniscient god (supreme

being) know what time it is now?Or• Could a supreme being (god) be

omniscient, even though they don’t know what time it is now?