Parasomnium writes:
quote:
If an omniscient being cannot be omnipotent, it cannot know what it is like to be omnipotent. But if it cannot know that, then it doesn’t know everything.
I think you just equivocated on the word "everything."
That is, you have started with "everything" meaning "things that are actually going to happen" and then switched to "everything" meaning "every conceivable thing."
For example, if I take out a standard deck of 52 cards and you draw one, I know all the possible results. I know "what it's like" for you to have drawn any of the 52 possibilities.
However, I don't know what card you actually drew until I look at it.
Omniscience doesn't mean knowledge about all conceptualizations because some conceptualizations are physically impossible. When you draw a card from the deck, you don't get snake-eyes. Omniscience is about knowing actualities.
If I'm a good magician, I can make you think you've had a free choice in picking your card but actually force you to draw a card of my choosing. I can "conceive" of you drawing another card, but my "omniscience" comes from knowing that you were actually going to draw the specific one you did.
Now, before the analogy runs away, let's not get into the question of my "forcing" the card upon you. An omniscient person who, upon asking you to draw a card, knows what card you are going to draw without having consciously to do anything to make you pick that card.
I agree that omniscience removes free will. But omniscience does not mean non-omniscience.
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Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!
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