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Omniscience Quotes

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Omniscience Quotes

“In order for a god to be all-knowing, he must know even the fact of his own omniscience. But can he do this? He may know the totality of facts constituting the world; call this Y. But in order to know that he has mastered Y, he must also know that 'There are no facts unknown to me' — and this is beyond Y. It seems impossible that a god (or anyone) could ever be sure that nothing exists beyond his ken. It makes no sense to imagine [a god] arriving at this limit, peering beyond it (at what?), and satisfying himself no further facts exist. But without this certainty he cannot be sure of his own omniscience, and so does not know everything. A theist might argue that his god has created all the facts in existence. But an omniscient god would have to be sure of even this — that he is the sole creator, and that there are no facts unknown to him. And how could he come to this knowledge?”

FactsKnowledgeCertaintyContradictionParadoxImpossibilityOmniscienceAtheist ArgumentAtheist ArgumentsAll KnowingIncompatible Attributes
Author:Roland Puccetti
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“God, as represented in Scripture, by nature, is the true non-conformist. He does not need to conform to any truth; He does not need to conform to some moral law. It proclaims that He is the Truth; He defines Morality: the Great I Am, the Beginning and the End who radiates all that is Holy. Therefore, and unless we too were wholly holy and omniscient, we would do well to understand at the very least that even if this God were to wipe away all in existence, then despite my opinion or your opinion, His decision would be objectively good and moral simply because He is the one doing it.”

GodTruthMoralityBibleScriptureHolinessConformityNonconformityOmniscienceI Am
Author:Criss Jami
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“What's simple is that everything good comes from God, and everything bad comes from man. Where it gets complicated is that everything seemingly good but ultimately bad comes from man, and everything seemingly bad but ultimately good comes from God.”

LoveHeartReasonGodPainHappinessJoyDesirePurposeSufferingPassionEvilUnderstandingSinEmotionIgnoranceMoralityJudgmentGloryPerfectionUltimateSimplicityStupidityGoodLustManMeaningFallenComplexityHolinessBlindnessSovereigntyBadMisunderstoodDiscernmentComplicationDepravityApologeticsOmnipotenceOmniscienceScamStupidity Of ManBlindness Of ManOmnipresence
Book:Healology
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“The faithful are often mocked for saying that God works in mysterious ways because it sounds like lazy thinking, or a cop-out answer; but it's actually quite conclusive in many cases. One should consider the concept of omniscience: that a Being worthy of being called 'God' would know and utilize 12-D chess while humans are still playing checkers.”

GodFaithChessMysteriousFaith In GodFaithfulnessApologeticsOmniscienceCheckersUnderstanding God
Author:Criss Jami
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“The words chance and genius do not denote any really existing thing and therefore cannot be defined. Those words only denote a certain stage of understanding of phenomena. I do not know why a certain event occurs; I think that 1 cannot know it; so 1 do not try to know it and I talk about chance. I see a force producing effects beyond the scope of ordinary human agencies; I do not understand why this occurs and I talk of genius. To a herd of rams, the ram the herdsman drives each evening into a special enclosure to feed and that becomes twice as fat as the others must seem to be a genius. And it must appear an astonishing conjunction of genius with a whole series of extraordinary chances that this ram, who instead of getting into the general fold every evening goes into a special enclosure where there are oats—-that this very ram, swelling with fat, is killed for meat. But the rams need only cease to suppose that all that happens to them happens solely for the attainment of their sheepish aims; they need only admit that what happens to them may also have purposes beyond their ken, and they will at once perceive a unity and coherence in what happened to the ram that was fattened. Even if they do not know for what purpose they are fattened, they will at least know that all that happened to the ram did not happen accidentally.”

GodHumanityChanceKnowledgePerspectiveGeniusLuckSheepSovereigntyOmniscience
Book:War and Peace
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“...[A]ll the elements which belong to the notion of happiness are altogether empirical, that is, they must be borrowed from experience, and nevertheless the idea of happiness requires an absolute whole, a maximum of welfare in my present and all future circumstances. Now it is impossible that the most clear-sighted and at the same time most powerful being (supposed finite) should frame to himself a definite conception of what he really wills in this. Does he will riches, how much anxiety, envy, and snares might he not thereby draw upon his shoulders? Does he will knowledge and discernment, perhaps it might prove to be only an eye so much the sharper to show him so much the more fearfully the evils that are now concealed from him and that cannot be avoided, or to impose more wants on his desires, which already give him concern enough. Would he have long life? Who guarantees to him that it would not be a long misery? Would he at least have health? How often has uneasiness of the body restrained from excesses into which perfect health would have allowed one to fall, and so on? In short, he is unable, on any principle, to determine with certainty what would make him truly happy; because to do so he would need to be omniscient.”

HappinessFrailtyOmniscience
Book:Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
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“³In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. ⁴One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. ⁵And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. ⁶Who is in a position to do this? [M-10.3:3-6]”

GodTruthSpiritualTimeSpiritualityAwarenessJudgmentOmniscienceConcioussnes
Book:A Course in Miracles
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“God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. When God looks at a painful or wicked event through his narrow lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin for what it is in itself and he is angered and grieved. “I do not delight in the death of anyone, says the Lord God” (Ezek. 18:32). But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. He sees it in all the connections and effects that form a pattern or mosaic stretching into eternity. This mosaic, with all its (good and evil) parts he does delight in (Ps. 115:3).”

OmnipotenceOmniscienceThe Will Of GodThe Problem Of EvilThe Two Wills Of GodTwo Wills
Book:Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
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“Yet it is unassailably true that so long as we lack omniscience and do not know all of the future, all our generalizations are fallible or only probable. And the history of human error shows that a general consensus, or widespread and unquestioned feeling of certainty, does not preclude the possibility that the future may show us to be in error.”

CertaintyErrorOmniscienceGeneralizationsProbableFallible
Book:An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method
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“We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes. The perfection that the human mind has been able to give to astronomy affords but a feeble outline of such an intelligence.”

MindPastScienceTimeUniverseNatureSpacePerfectionIntelligencePhysicsAstronomyCertaintyDataAnalysisFree WillHuman MindEyesPresentComprehensionNaturalismDeterminismMotionOmniscienceFormulaLack Of Free Will
Author:Pierre Simon de Laplace
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“Astfgl sat back. He wondered what did happen to Lavaeoulus. Gods and demons, being creatures outside of time, don't move in it like bubbles in the stream. Everything happens at the same time for them. This should mean that they know everything that is going to happen because, in a sense, it already has. The reason they don't is that reality is a big place with a lot of interesting things going on, and keeping track of all of them is like trying to use a very big video recorder with no freeze button or tape counter. It's usually easier to just wait and see.”

TimeOmniscienceClairvoyanceDivination
Book:Eric
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“It sounds like a fairy-tale, but not only that; this story of what man by his science and practical inventions has achieved on this earth, where he first appeared as a weakly member of the animal kingdom, and on which each individual of his species must ever again appear as a helpless infant... is a direct fulfilment of all, or of most, of the dearest wishes in his fairy-tales. All these possessions he has acquired through culture. Long ago he formed an ideal conception of omnipotence and omniscience which he embodied in his gods. Whatever seemed unattainable to his desires - or forbidden to him - he attributed to these gods. One may say, therefore, that these gods were the ideals of his culture. Now he has himself approached very near to realizing this ideal, he has nearly become a god himself. But only, it is true, in the way that ideals are usually realized in the general experience of humanity. Not completely; in some respects not at all, in others only by halves. Man has become a god by means of artificial limbs, so to speak, quite magnificent when equipped with all his accessory organs; but they do not grow on him and they still give him trouble at times... Future ages will produce further great advances in this realm of culture, probably inconceivable now, and will increase man's likeness to a god still more.”

ScienceDesireHumanityCultureWishMankindFutureFulfillmentFairy TaleGodsForbiddenOmnipotencePredictionOmniscience
Book:Civilization and Its Discontents
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“Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life. Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority. Accept the fact that you are not omniscient, but playing a zombie will not give you omniscience-that your mind is fallible, but becoming mindless will not make you infallible-that an error made on your own is safer than ten truths accepted on faith, because the first leaves you the means to correct it, but the second destroys your capacity to distinguish truth from error.”

GivingMindFirstsMeanMadeFactsAcceptingBecomingTenLimitsAuthorityCapacityErrorsAcceptedDeep ThoughtAutonomyExpandingZombieLearning From MistakesInfallibleMindlessCorrectingWise WomenRedeemingOmniscientFallibilityInfallibilityOmniscience
Book:Atlas Shrugged
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“On this earth there are many roads to heaven; and each traveller supposes his own to be the best. But they must all unite in one road at the last. It is only Omniscience that can decide. And it will then be found that no sect is excluded because of its faith.”

EarthLastsReligionFoundHeavenBeing The BestTravellerSectsExcludedOmniscience
Book:Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies as Regards Their Conversation; Manners; Dress; with Full Instructions and Advice in Letter Writing [!]; Receiving Presents; Incorrect Words
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“For some time there was a widely held notion (zealously fostered by the daily press) to the effect that the 'thinking ocean' of Solaris was a gigantic brain, prodigiously well-developed and several million years in advance of our own civilization, a sort of 'cosmic yogi', a sage, a symbol of omniscience, which had long ago understood the vanity of all action and for this reason had retreated into an unbreakable silence.”

ThinkingYearsWellsLongReasonActionBrainSilenceMillionsEffectsCivilizationOceanUnderstoodPressesNotionSymbolsVanityCosmicLong AgoSageYogiUnbreakableOmniscienceSolaris
Author:Stanislaw Lem
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“Mr. Marx does not believe in God, but he believes deeply in himself. His heart is filled not with love but with rancor. He has very little benevolence toward men and becomes... furious and... spiteful... when anyone dares question the omniscience of the divinity whom he adores, that is to say, Mr. Marx himself.”

MenBelieveHeartLittlesDoeChristianReligiousFilledDareDivinityBelieve In GodAdoreBenevolenceFuriousSpitefulOmniscienceRancor
Author:Mikhail Bakunin
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“Liberals compare Jerry Falwell to the Taliban, but then are furious with George Bush for not being Jesus Christ. Evidently, what a president is supposed to do when the girls are scared is develop complete omniscience and omnipotence. Thus, the media repeatedly expound upon the proposition that what Bush should have done in response to the anthrax mailings is: Instantly produce the culprits and put an end to this madness!”

ShouldEndsDoneGirlJesusPresidentChristMediaProduceJesus ChristShould HaveMadnessResponseScaredComparePropositionsTalibanFuriousJerryOmnipotenceOmniscienceCulpritMailingAnthrax
Author:Ann Coulter
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“For my omniscience paid I toll In infinite remorse of soul. All sin was of my sinning, all Atoning mine, and mine the gall Of all regret. Mine was the weight Of every brooded wrong, the hate That stood behind each envious thrust, Mine every greed, mine every lust. And all the while for every grief, Each suffering, I craved relief With individual desire, – Craved all in vain! And felt fierce fire About a thousand people crawl; Perished with each, — then mourned for all!”

PeopleSoulDesireSufferingHateIndividualFeltSinGriefBehindsFireMinesRegretThousandWeightPaidInfiniteGreedLustVainReliefFierceRemorseThrustEnviousTollsSinningOmniscience
Book:Renascence and Other Poems
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“When you come to look into this argument from design, it is a most astonishing thing that people can believe that this world, with all the things that are in it, with all its defects, should be the best that omnipotence and omniscience has been able to produce in millions of years.”

PeopleWorldShouldYearsBelieveLooksHas BeensAbleMillionsDesignThis WorldProduceArgumentBeing The BestDefectsAstonishingOmnipotenceOmniscience
Book:A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42
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“O God, when I listen to the voices of animals, the sounds of trees, the murmurings of water, the singing of birds, the whistling of the wind, or the boom of thunder, I see in them evidence of Your unity; I feel that You are supreme power, omniscience, supreme knowledge, and supreme justice. I recognize You, O God, in the trials I am going through. May Your pleasure be my pleasure, too. May I be Your joy, the joy that a Father feels for a son. And may I think of You calmly and with determination, even when I find it hard to say I love You.”

ThinkingFeelsMayHardJoyFatherSoundVoiceWaterJusticePleasureAnimalTreeLove YouSonWindSingingBirdEvidenceDeterminationUnitySupremeTrialsThunderThink Of YouSay I Love YouWhistlingMurmuringOmniscienceSupreme PowerI Think Of You
Author:Paulo Coelho
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“God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "0 Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”

WayMayEyeDealsLordMysteryDivineTruth IsResponsibleRaisesElectionProfoundSaintGods WillMysteriousReverenceSovereigntyTheologianPredestinationOmniscience
Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer
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“Genius is Omniscience flowing into man.”

MenGeniusOmniscience
Book:The Science of Being Great: Personal Self-Help Book of Wallace D. Wattles (Unabridged): From one of The New Thought pioneers, author of The Science of Getting Rich, The Science of Being Well, How to Get What You Want, Hellfire Harrison, How to Promote Yourself and A New Christ
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“Joy and happiness are the indicators of balance in a human machine...An inner joyousness, amounting to ecstasy, is the normal condition of the genius mind. Any lack of that joyousness develops body-destroying toxins. That inner ecstasy of the mind is the secret fountain of perpetual youth and strength in any man. He who finds it finds omnipotence and omniscience.”

MenMindHumansBodyHappinessJoySecretConditionsYouthGeniusBalanceNormalMachinesEcstasyDestroyingPerpetualFountainJoy And HappinessOmnipotenceIndicatorsToxinsOmniscience
Author:Walter Russell
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“To this day, we see all around us the Promethean drive to omnipotence through technology and to omniscience through science. The effecting of all things possible and the knowledge of all causes are the respective primary imperatives of technology and of science. But the motivating imperative of society continues to be the very different one of its physical and spiritual survival. It is now far less obvious than it was in Francis Bacon's world how to bring the three imperatives into harmony, and how to bring all three together to bear on problems where they superpose.”

KnowsWorldDifferentProblemTogetherSpiritualScienceThreeCausesKnowledgeTechnologyBearsSurvivalAll ThingsAccountsHarmonyObviousPrimariesThis DayImperativesOmnipotenceOmniscience
Book:The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens: The Jefferson Lecture and Other Essays
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