Q&A: A Question That’s Been Running Through My Head for a While
A Question That’s Been Running Through My Head for a While
Question
Good evening, Rabbi.
I read the trilogy a long time ago, and also God Plays Dice.
The Rabbi reaches the conclusion that if God knows -> there is no choice, and therefore God does not know. a0
I have one problem here: after all, you talk about the question of “Can God create a stone that He cannot lift,” and you say that this is meaningless and devoid of sense. There is no meaning to such a statement. In other words, God cannot limit Himself.
If so, how can God create a world in which He does not know a person’s thoughts? After all, ostensibly that limits Him, and it becomes meaningless and senseless. a0
Thank you.
Answer
I did not say that He does not know a person’s thoughts. I said that He does not know what a person will choose in the future. Knowing information that does not exist is not a deficiency, because it is not defined.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know about Him, but we think within a framework of time, and so do our thoughts about Him.
He did not limit Himself in any way; rather, He gave us free choice. When it is free, the information does not exist before we choose, and non-existent information cannot be known.
Even if He knows our choice, that doesn’t interfere with our choosing, so what’s the problem?
The problem is that you can’t know information that doesn’t exist. There was a series of columns about knowledge and choice. Search and see there in detail.
If supposedly God is perfect, then time does not apply to Him, so isn’t it problematic to say about Him that He does not know something *at a certain time*? That sounds a bit like it contradicts God’s perfection.
It kind of sounds like He limited Himself by time, which is supposed to be meaningless.