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Chapter Eleven OMNISCIENCE': DETERMINISM AND
FREEDOM (1) If X foreknows that Y will act in a manner known as Z, and if Y really acts in the same manner, there seems to be no choice for Y but rather fixed and inexorable necessity. If it is admitted that somebody is omniscient, no human action can be free or voluntary. So it may also be deduced that if the omniscience is a fact, morality becomes a delusion.S
(2) In the case of God, omniscience is regarded as the very nature of God, because He is the maximum being and the only cause of the effected beings. As maximum being, He is the most perfect being, hence most conscious and absolute self-conscious4. But being the only possible cause of beings, God is eminently whatever any effected being may be. Thus knowing himself perfectly and most directly, he knows himself as he is, hence as the only possible cause of all possible beings, and thus knows everything, real or mere possible, in the awareness of his own essence. One reason why God is omniscient is His omnipotence.5 Since He created all things He knew them before they existed, while they were still mere possibilities. He knows not only that which actually exists, but also that which could possibly exist, i, e., future realities and 1. By 'omniscience' I mean knowledge of all things-actual or
possible of all places and of all times. 2. By 'freedom' I mean 'freedom of will'. 3. Cp. 'Either freedom is a fact or morality is a delusion'. 4. Richard De. V. Smet, 'Omniscience in Christian Thought.
an unpublished article written on my request, p. 1. 5. Paul Heinisch, Eng. Editor Rev. William Heidt, Theology
of the Old Testament, p. 89; Cp. P. S., 33 : 15; 94:9; 15; 24; Sir. 23:20,
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