Michael Nugent with the twelfth in a series of pieces on whether gods exist. 

Is an all-knowing god possible? This is the twelfth of a series of short posts about whether gods exist and why the question is an important one.

Theologians often claim that their god is all-knowing. But does this make sense? If a god is all-knowing, then it would know the look, sound, taste, smell, or feel of everything.
Photo: centre of Milky Way galaxy from NASA & ESA/Hubble

Among an incalculable mix of permutations, it would know the look of a sunset on Malibu beach in California, the sound of a philharmonic orchestra, the taste of red pepper hummus, the smell of freshly cut grass, and the feel of a prickly cactus plant.

The problem with this is more fundamental than the range of details involved.

The problem is that, if the god has no body and therefore no senses, then how can it know the look, sound, taste, smell, or feel of anything?

And if the god does have a body and therefore has senses, then it is not beyond time and space but is a part of the natural universe.

If you respond that the god has no senses but that it knows the truth of propositions about looks, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels, then the god is not all-knowing. It is less than all-knowing.

More significantly, from a moral perspective, if a god is all-knowing, then it knows what we are going to do in the future.

But if it knows that, then either we do not have free will, or else the god has consciously created free agents that it knows will do evil. In either case, the god is responsible for any suffering that we cause to others.

This means that an all-knowing god is either not all-good, or not all-powerful, or not either.

The more you examine how it would work out in practice, the more self-contradictory the idea becomes of a god that is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful.

Michael Nugent is Chair of Atheist Ireland

Do Gods Exist? 12 ➤ An All-Knowing God?

Michael Nugent with the twelfth in a series of pieces on whether gods exist. 

Is an all-knowing god possible? This is the twelfth of a series of short posts about whether gods exist and why the question is an important one.

Theologians often claim that their god is all-knowing. But does this make sense? If a god is all-knowing, then it would know the look, sound, taste, smell, or feel of everything.
Photo: centre of Milky Way galaxy from NASA & ESA/Hubble

Among an incalculable mix of permutations, it would know the look of a sunset on Malibu beach in California, the sound of a philharmonic orchestra, the taste of red pepper hummus, the smell of freshly cut grass, and the feel of a prickly cactus plant.

The problem with this is more fundamental than the range of details involved.

The problem is that, if the god has no body and therefore no senses, then how can it know the look, sound, taste, smell, or feel of anything?

And if the god does have a body and therefore has senses, then it is not beyond time and space but is a part of the natural universe.

If you respond that the god has no senses but that it knows the truth of propositions about looks, sounds, tastes, smells, and feels, then the god is not all-knowing. It is less than all-knowing.

More significantly, from a moral perspective, if a god is all-knowing, then it knows what we are going to do in the future.

But if it knows that, then either we do not have free will, or else the god has consciously created free agents that it knows will do evil. In either case, the god is responsible for any suffering that we cause to others.

This means that an all-knowing god is either not all-good, or not all-powerful, or not either.

The more you examine how it would work out in practice, the more self-contradictory the idea becomes of a god that is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful.

Michael Nugent is Chair of Atheist Ireland

2 comments:

  1. The Fundies get around this problem neatly by saying that 'God' exists outside space/time, but as Dawkins points out that's just too fucking easy!

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    1. I don't think they do get around the problem - they use it as a comfort blanket. Aron Ra is brilliant on exposing and demolishing this type of evasiveness.

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