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Knowledge of God in Rambam

שו”תCategory: philosophyKnowledge of God in Rambam
asked 7 months ago

Hello, following your comment regarding the Maimonides’ answer, which is meaningless:
If there is a creature living in a two-dimensional world, for example an A4 sheet. If we try to show it a three-dimensional ball, of course we cannot, but we can move the ball through the sheet and each time there will be a two-dimensional scan of the ball, so on the sheet at first a point will appear (the edge of the ball touches the sheet) then a circle that gets bigger (largest when the center of the ball is scanned on the sheet) and then smaller. If we have time we can scan the entire ball. Because the two-dimensional creature is limited in its perception, if it does not have the concept of time it will never be able to grasp the entire three-dimensional object, it will be stuck.
In a parable – we are the creatures who perceive reality only in a limited number of dimensions, every moment of the present is a scan from reality that actually exists on a “higher” dimensional level. God perceives reality as it is without the need for time. All reality exists statically (timeless) and God perceives it all, within that reality there are spaces that are subject to our choice (our free choice), God simply observes reality in a super-temporal way, we who are limited experience reality as a sequence of “scans” on a timeline in our limited dimensional space.
Thus there is choice, and there is knowledge of God (foreseeable and given permission). All concepts of choice and knowledge exist in a temporal manner in space. We only experience them as dependent on time. Thus the conceptual problem of knowledge “before” (there is no such thing as before because in truth there is no time, there is space) choice disappears.
Thank you for your attention. Thank you in advance.


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מיכי Staff answered 7 months ago
You state in many words the common answer that God is above time and space, etc., and therefore can do anything. This is irrelevant to the discussion. The question is not how He obtains the information, but after He has the information, how do we have free choice? See the series on knowledge and choice in my series.

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אורי replied 7 months ago

Hey, the argument is that we do not become a bank of time but rather a space over time that we experience a piece of as the present. The mistake is in saying that you do something “today” or “in the future” – we do actions in a certain bank of space.

אורי replied 7 months ago

All phenomena, including ourselves, exist in a space beyond time; the experience of time is an illusion.

מיכי Staff replied 7 months ago

Pointless arguments are useless in solving any problem. Why don't you just say that God is above logic and then all the difficulties disappear, and that's it?

אורי replied 7 months ago

It's not the same thing, so I gave the doge’ in advance – there is a parallel to it that we are able to perceive and we project from it. A colorblind person is still able to know that there are more colors than the limited amount that he sees, even if he has no perception of it.
Just as a two-dimensional creature does not perceive anything three-dimensional and we do not perceive anything four-dimensional. It is a different lack of understanding.

אורי replied 7 months ago

Either way, I didn't know about the existence of the columns you referred to. I've already read the first three and look forward to reading the last one (I've already gone through it in 2 carts). Waiting. Thanks.

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