Can some1 try to explain this to me?

Question

For instance, take omniscience and omnipotence. If the omniscient God knows the future with absolute certainty, how can he be omnipotent? For knowing the future, he can no longer change it. If God cannot change the future, then he cannot be omnipotent. But if God can change the future, how can he be omniscient? Does God have free will? For knowing what he will do in the future with certainty, he can no longer be said to have free will. He does not make any decisions for all his future actions are already known to him.
Some ppl will try to say that we can't understand GOD and his work but at the same time theya re using words that we use to describe what we do understand. May be we should invent some new words and just say hey. This are the attributes of GOD and don't explain what they mean?
But anyway i would like to udnerstand how its possible to be omniscience and omnipotence at the same time.

Constantly ppl saying that GOD is outside of time or blalblalba.
Well time is not an object, time is description.
When same ppl saying god existed forever let me guess what is forever? And when they jump for eternity let me guess what is eternity? Oh yeah sitting outside of time and space.

Answer 1

Obviously, it is not possible. Nor is it possible for god's creations to have free will IF god is omniscient.

It is easy to understand where and how this problem arose. Remember, religion was invented by men to relieve the pressure of 'cognitive dissonance'... that uncomfortable, fearful feeling that comes from 'not knowing'. The cure was to invent supernatural entities, and attribute powers, personalities and areas of responsibility to them, thus creating the ILLUSION that they 'knew'. It is unfortunate (for desert monotheism) that the concepts of god were solidified as dogma a few thousand years before the philosophical discipline of 'logic' was dreamed up by the Greeks. Those that concocted the religion were apparently not equipped with the intellectual tools to realize that they had 'screwed the pooch' with respect to assigning god's impossible attributes. It wasn't until the 4th century that this logical impossibility garnered serious attention, and churchmen got their theological 'dancin' shoes' on, trying to weasel their way out of the logical dilemma.

They did not succeed, and this issue continues to be debated even 'til this day. This logical dilemma (and the resulting 'cognitive dissonance') was a key element in some of the various 'heresies' that were spawned in the early days of Christianity.

However, the simple observation that these impossible beliefs still exist shows that this does not seem to have been a very big hindrance, under the simple expediency that "There is no problem so big that we cannot ignore it, until it will go away." Too bad for them, though... it DOESN'T go away.

Corporate religion is helped along by the fact that most 'believers' do not employ logic or critical thinking skills; heck... that's why they're believers in the first place. If they employed logic and critical thinking, they WOULD NOT BE believers. So, even though these concepts create a logical impossibility, it does not seem to present a significant problem for them.

Answer 2

From God's POV there is not merely ONE certain set of possibilities. There are in fact probably an infinite number of possibilities for the actions of any one person, combined with the actions of any other persons. God is omniscient because he knows them all, not only the ones that will be actualized, but all the other possibilitites that did not become actualized. The way a particular set of possibilities becomes actualized is through the persons freely taken decision, combined with any bits of randomness that may happen within the time frame. For example, someone waking up one hour late, or a lightbulb going out, or a tornado that veered to the left instead of to the right. God does *NOT* control everything that happens; rather He established a set of rules that govern this universe ( laws of physics, laws of nature,) and let things go. Only rarely does He intervene ( interfere??) in the workings of His universe. These are what we call "miracles".
Yet God can control the future, if He chooses, by the use of miracles. This in no way interferes with OUR free will. Free will is NEVER an absolute, it is contingent, it is a limited free will, and the limitation is in our nature. We cannot choose to fly (as a bird) or to teleport ourselves anywhere we want, it is not in the nature we have been given to do so. But we can always choose whether to believe or not, or whether to get angry ot forgive a person, or to stay at the speed limit, or speed, etc etc. Each one of these decisions affects what our future range of decisions will be, and we well always have the ability to choose until the moment of death.

Answer 3

>>>If the omniscient God knows the future with absolute certainty, how can he be omnipotent? For knowing the future, he can no longer change it.<<<

"Omnipotent" means being ABLE to do everything. But that does mean that God DOES do everything He's capable of doing.

What makes you think that God can't change the future? Of course, He could, if He wanted to.

He chooses not to change the future, at least as far as we can tell.

But just because He DOESN'T change the future, doesn't mean He CAN'T do it.

Here's an analogy: My fiancee is 6-foot-2 and weighs a muscular 220 pounds.

I'm 5'6" and weigh about 120.

My fiancee hasn't picked me up and snapped me in half -- and I can honestly say that he never will.

But that doesn't mean He CAN'T do it. He could do it in a heartbeat. But, fortunately, he loves me and wants me to stay in one piece.

You seem to think that the only reason why God doesn't do a particular thing is because He can't. It doesn't seem to dawn on you that God, like people, often chooses not to do things that He could do easily if He wanted to.

Answer 4

It is one of the hardest thing to explain because we as humans can't comprehend being able to see the past and the future at the same time . And yes I guess he possibly is both omniscience and omnipotence or however you spell it . He is everything so yah! that is my answer God is everything knows everything . He is almighty God.

Answer 5

It is on my FAQ page:

Also, "This only One and very Self is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. This also every Christian acknowledges from his doctrine and every gentile from his religion. In consequence, wherever he is, a man thinks that God is there and that he prays to God at hand; thinking and praying so, men cannot but think that God is everywhere, that is, omnipresent [in all places at all times]; likewise omniscient [all knowing] and omnipotent [all powerful]. Everyone praying to God, therefore, implores Him from the heart to lead him because He can lead him; thus he acknowledges the divine omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, doing so in turning his face to the Lord; thereupon the truth flows in from the Lord" (Divine Providence n. 157).


http://www.mechanicsburgnewchurch.org

Answer 6

It's true -- God knows what will happen in the future -- but does He change it? Well, there's a good chance He doesn't -- because man was given FREE WILL -- look at what happened to Adam and Eve --
but, God does say He will be with us to get us through any traumas and tribulations we have to deal with -- that's His way of showing us forgiveness for however we screw up the world and each other. Hope this makes sense.

Answer 7

God wouldn't be God if He couldn't change or know all things. I think the correct way to state this is He wouldn't change or interfere with our freewill by choice, NOT "he couldn't change the future." He is able to do anything. With God anything is possible or He wouldn't be God, so therefore that's why He can be both at the same time.

Answer 8

The best way to put it is to say that he knows not only the way that something is going to happen, but he also know how it could happen if something else was done. What would have happened if some one had not invented telephones? we wouldn't have had the Internet. then we wouldn't be sending msgs to each other. or would we? some once could have invented another way to communicate and the web may have developed from that. God knows what would have happened every way we could have gone down. and what happens further down each path. I hope that helps more than confuses.

Answer 9

God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. Says so right here on the label.

Answer 10

God knows everything--He knows what He is doing.God is all powerful--yes, He can do anything. Who says He changes His mind? Don't forget that God is ever present--we are the only beings who measure time. God's will is constant, unchanging. It is human will that changes things during our time on Earth.