So does God know everything we are going to do? Does he care if I wear my blue shirt or my white one? Does he know if we will be saved or not? Maybe he sees time in a fourth dimension.
I've heard a number of different opinions on that. One opinion is that God just knows us so well he knows what we will do. Another opinion is that time is measured only to man. God sees the end from the beginning, not because of foreknowledge, but because all things are (simultaneously) before him.
I'm sure God knows whether we will be saved or not. I've heard some of the General Authorities (Hartman Rector, for one) say that some things just don't matter to God. He cited a scripture in the D&C about it didn't matter whether a particular pair of missionaries went one way or another. His example was it didn't matter whether they set the time to start a meeting at 7:00 or 7:15.
The difficult thing for many people is the thought, if God knows everything, then we have no agency. I believe God knows everything, but we have our agency.
I don't know, like I mentioned to you recently... I think there's some level at which God cares about your specific decisions and some level at which he doesn't. In my mind it has something to do with the lasting consequences of a decision... something that the color of your shirt is not likely to have. But it's pretty hard to create a dividing line between "important" decisions and "unimportant" ones... and in fact it may not be our place to do so.
I like your idea of God seeing time in a "fourth dimension" though. It may help reconcile the idea of a God that knows everything ever with free will. Although I still tend toward rejecting free will, but that's another issue.
I believe very strongly in free will, as for multidimensional sight I think that it is possible, but how many dimensions does he look down? If all of them, then there is absolutely nothing that changes at all, only our perception, and even the change in that is merely an illusion. If he doesn't see down all dimensions, then the ones he doesn't see down are the true time dimensions (meaning that the change in these is what the history of everything is based on) regardless of what we prcieve as time. ... What I am late... and I didn't even state my position clearly.
I seldom comment on blogs, I've never read yours before today, and you don't know me but I felt I had to butt in on this one. As a parent, I don't know every decision my children make, nor do I need to. I don't know if my son hit the snooze button on his alarm clock this morning. Or what clothes he contemplated wearing. But I do know that he was up, showered, dressed appropriately for school, and had eaten breakfast in time to leave for school this morning. Some of those little decisions don't matter a great deal. But the cumulative effect does. And I know that the end result was a desirable one. Remember that we shouldn't need to be commanded in all things. I don't know about you, but I'd hate to be told I was slothful and not a wise servant.
7 comments:
I'm going to say yes to all of that.
I've heard a number of different opinions on that. One opinion is that God just knows us so well he knows what we will do. Another opinion is that time is measured only to man. God sees the end from the beginning, not because of foreknowledge, but because all things are (simultaneously) before him.
I'm sure God knows whether we will be saved or not. I've heard some of the General Authorities (Hartman Rector, for one) say that some things just don't matter to God. He cited a scripture in the D&C about it didn't matter whether a particular pair of missionaries went one way or another. His example was it didn't matter whether they set the time to start a meeting at 7:00 or 7:15.
The difficult thing for many people is the thought, if God knows everything, then we have no agency. I believe God knows everything, but we have our agency.
I don't know, like I mentioned to you recently... I think there's some level at which God cares about your specific decisions and some level at which he doesn't. In my mind it has something to do with the lasting consequences of a decision... something that the color of your shirt is not likely to have. But it's pretty hard to create a dividing line between "important" decisions and "unimportant" ones... and in fact it may not be our place to do so.
I like your idea of God seeing time in a "fourth dimension" though. It may help reconcile the idea of a God that knows everything ever with free will. Although I still tend toward rejecting free will, but that's another issue.
I believe very strongly in free will, as for multidimensional sight I think that it is possible, but how many dimensions does he look down? If all of them, then there is absolutely nothing that changes at all, only our perception, and even the change in that is merely an illusion. If he doesn't see down all dimensions, then the ones he doesn't see down are the true time dimensions (meaning that the change in these is what the history of everything is based on) regardless of what we prcieve as time. ... What I am late... and I didn't even state my position clearly.
You need to take Psych 353.
you better not have worn the blue one, otherwise you're going to hell.
I seldom comment on blogs, I've never read yours before today, and you don't know me but I felt I had to butt in on this one. As a parent, I don't know every decision my children make, nor do I need to. I don't know if my son hit the snooze button on his alarm clock this morning. Or what clothes he contemplated wearing. But I do know that he was up, showered, dressed appropriately for school, and had eaten breakfast in time to leave for school this morning. Some of those little decisions don't matter a great deal. But the cumulative effect does. And I know that the end result was a desirable one. Remember that we shouldn't need to be commanded in all things. I don't know about you, but I'd hate to be told I was slothful and not a wise servant.
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