I replied to that proposition too.
I guess they were arguing against my claim that omniscience =/= death of all cognitive activity. Basically they proposed that god only perceived 1 chunk of information at a time, while all other knowledge was not in the spotlight of it's consciousness. Kind of like me knowing who the 3d US president was, but rarely bringing that knowledge up.
I don't really buy that, though.
But yeah. omniscience is death of all motivation.
Originally Posted by
hydrotoxin
@Odlov
If a being is omniscient and omnipotent, then everything you have said makes perfect sense philosophically. But, you did not mention omnipotence. If a being is merely omniscient, then they are only aware of all occuring possibilities within a universe, but has no control over them unless they act on their infinite knowledge- however, even this does not indicate the ability to begin causality. For instance, if you or I were all-knowing beings, we would certainly become bored quite quickly, as the entire scope of human experience is based on acquiring knowledge. Certainly, suicide would be a strong possibility. However, it appears as though you are speaking from the perspective of a god, who is omniscient but not necessarily omnipotent or omnipresent. Therefore, one can assume that merely knowing everything does, in fact, nullify any significance of that person without the presence of the other two "omni's". And such a being would not, by his existence alone, indicate that all actions are predestined, but rather that an immense number of possibilities within possibilities are predestined. Think of this hypothetical being as a chess player. The greatest chessmasters can predict moves far before their opponent makes them- but this does not necessarily indicate that those moves will, in fact, happen. Rather, it is indicative of the chessmaster's ability to preprognosticate, which can be projected onto our hypothetical being, albeit to a far greater extent.
Hope this provided some insight.
Yes i was talking about god (since it's the only omniscient concept people could relate to), sorry if it wasn't clear enough.
Last edited by Odlov; Nov 30, 2009 at 05:20 AM.