Omniscience and time

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Created by
Laurafleetham

Cards (9)

  • Who are the three scholars who discuss omniscience and time?

    Boethius
    Anselm
    Swinburne
  • What does Boethius say about omniscience and time?

    God sees the past, present, and future as one eternal moment
    Gods knowledge is not foreknowledge as it does not exist prior to our action
    He just sees the results of our free choices in his present
    We must have free will to be rewarded and punished justly
  • What is Anselm’s approach called?
    The four dimensionalist approach
  • What is the four dimensionalist approach?

    We can understand time as an objects extension through the fourth dimension
  • What does the four dimentionalist appoach state?
    Our future actions do not exist within time but they always exist in eternity. So God knows our future actions as he exists with them in eternity, but within time they are not fixed
  • What is presentism?

    Only the present moment exists
  • Is Anselm’s view a presentist one?
    No
  • What does Swinburne say about omniscience and timelessness?

    A God outside time is not biblical, so he moves along the same timeline as us
    A presentist view
    A timeless God wouldn’t be able to love as love is a response. He doesn’t see why a perfect being should be changeless
  • What does the Bible say about God in time?
    Numbers 23:19 - “God is not human so that he should lie, not a human being that he should change his mind”