Q&A: Knowledge of God
Knowledge of God
Question
I would be happy to ask about the issue of the attributes given to the Holy One, blessed be He. Before that, I’d like to know whether this is a place where I can actually get answers, or only a checkmark that it was answered, because for quite a few questions already I haven’t received an answer.
You argue that since we speak in our own language and say that God knows, therefore it is relevant to speak about Him in terms of knowing. And I ask: true, it is relevant to speak that way, but the conclusions drawn from the term “knows” are not relevant. If I call God by the term “knowing” and then infer from that that if He knows, then I have no free choice, that is a mistake. Because I have no idea what the manner of His knowledge is. The knowledge we know is limited to our reality. But God has no such limitation. And any attempt to force an answer regarding something that is beyond our ability to grasp will lead us into error. And I know your line of thinking, where you argue that God cannot create a triangle that is a square. That is exactly an example of a question that is a logical mistake. God can do whatever He wants, but if He brings it into our world then it has to fit human logic; otherwise it does not make sense. God established human logic, and He established that it is capable only of limited things.
Answer
I answer every question here, except for trolling.
I did not understand your question here. We speak within our own conceptual framework. Within that framework there is no possibility of foreknowledge together with free choice. You are trying, even if indirectly, to speak within a different framework. I understand nothing at all within a different framework, and neither do you. I have explained all this ad nauseam, and I do not see anything new in your question.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi, it is true that we do not understand within another framework that is not our own thinking. And that is exactly the point: if I do not understand that other framework, then why should I frame God’s abilities and as a result determine that He does not know what will be, or limit this because of our lack of understanding of the manner of His knowledge? So the question is: why not suffice with the understanding that I think Maimonides writes, and in my opinion it resolves the whole difficulty—namely, that the manner of His knowledge is different from ours, and therefore we have no ability to detract from Him or confine Him in any way?
You are not framing anything. When you speak about the Holy One, blessed be He, you do so within the framework of your language and your conceptual system. Within that framework He cannot deviate from the laws of logic, or at least there is no way to express such a thing. Maimonides’ claim does not answer this question at all (see the columns on knowledge and choice). That answers the question of how the Holy One, blessed be He, obtains the information, but our question is the reverse: assuming that He has the information, does that not compel what will happen in the future? This is a question about us, not about Him.
Haim,
Your logic is exactly what allows you to ask the question. If you want to discuss a non-logical universe, start by not asking questions or thinking at all.
Maybe there is a universe in which the Holy One, blessed be He, is not bound by logic, but in such a universe He could also both not exist alongside His existence, or be bound by logic after all, or the universe itself could be nonexistent despite existing.
I made the matter sound a bit ridiculous, just a tiny fraction of what is possible, so that it would remain somewhat understandable to someone not versed in philosophy. Google “the law of non-contradiction.”