Scientia Media A chance remark

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Scientia Media

A chance remark in the comments box this morning spawned an entire day of thinking. (This was a day mostly dedicated to drone tasks so brain engagement was at an absolute minimum).

I have always wondered how one reconciled omniscience, presdestination, and free will. It always seemed an impossible quandary involving arcane postulations about just how much God chose to know and His manner of knowing it. Reading about scientia media provoked a thought--what if it is not such a conundrum after all--only appearing so much more difficult because we do not have to hand an essential piece of the puzzle.

What seems critical here is our hopelessly pedestrian view of time as a linear progression. The view of eternity might be quite different. Time might be like an infinitely anastomosing stream. If there are infinitely many branches representing choices, decisions, options, and events, we could consider it in this fashion. As we move down this stream, once we move past the entrance to a particular distributary, or choose to enter the distributary, the other option is closed off. Thus our choices down the line pinch off as we move along. God knows all the options and all the possible views of these streams all the way to the end of the stream in Him. All of those options remain completely open and God knows completely all of the possibilities of outcomes, thus, "knows" the end choice that is not decided until in linear time the last sidestream is passed.

This leaves open every choice, it also does not limit God's omniscience. It doesn't resolve the trickier problem of the fact that God could choose to know or does know where this may end up. But it at least is a start that takes into account what I believe may be a more reasonable look at time from an eternal viewpoint. At least it makes for a good speculative suggestion.

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on January 31, 2003 5:10 PM.

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