# Can God see the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 12, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718 "2003-05-12T16:18:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/21 "2003-05-13T14:01:06Z")
**Philster** , is your post meant to be a sequitur to mine? Apologies if it was meant for someone else. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/22 "2003-05-13T14:07:15Z")
The Many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics allows free will in again- you have a free choice to move through the infinite worlds created by the choices you make. If God exists she can no doubt see all the worlds and all the choices, and understand better than you can why you choose to do a particular act. * * * Sci-fi worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/23 "2003-05-13T14:30:10Z")
The problem with omniscience for me is that it makes the whole good vs evil battle into a charade. It’s all a script already written by God. There’s no urgency or significance to it. If God is omniscient then God created evil. Why create evil just to have a battle over it. In fact, if God is also omnipotent why have a battle at all? He can just snap his fingers and make evil disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Tiggis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Tiggis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiggis)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/24 "2003-05-13T14:50:27Z")
The problem is I think that limited people have a hard time understanding past their limitations. The christian GOD is outside of time. Talking about when he knew something has no meaning. There is no when to GOD. He did not know what you would wear before you chose it, because that requires you to impose time as a medium on GOD when he is not limited to that medium. God did not know anything before you did anything. Thereis no GOD knew, only GOD Knows, allways in the same tense. ---
**Author:** ![mooka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@mooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mooka)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/25 "2003-05-13T15:23:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*Time is merely an axis on which _events exist_, in the same way that space (_ie._ “everyday” space) is 3 axes along which objects exist. There is no such thing as “now”. For thermodynamic reasons, memory only works in one direction (_ie._ at any “now” on the axis, only the events “to its left” will exist in memory). > > Just because one has no knowledge or memory of an event if it is “to the _right_” of one’s “now” does not mean it does not exist on the axis. Its existence and cause are all explained by the events to its left (which might include “free will” decisions) but time (or an entity which can view the entire axis at once) need not be involved at any particular “now”.\*\* But if quantum mechanics is correct then events don’t exist in the future - only probabilities do. You cannot accurately predict even in principle the future. Whereas you can deduce accurately into the past (in principle). > [@](#): > > Regarding the God part of the question, I would suggest that this idea more seriously questions _God’s_ “free will” rather than that of us poor thermodynamically constrained insects. He _can_ view the entire axis and can therefore see when He interferes and the exact outcome of such interference, which would appear to render prayer meaningless save for its comforting value and put the idea of “sin” on very shaky grounds. > > That is, if we are created with the capacity to disobey God and God can see _when_ this happens over all time, I cannot see where any “fault” lies except solely and squarely with Him. After all, if a shoddily built TV gives an intermittent picture, one does not blame _the television itself_. But if God exists outside time then he can’t do anything. If there is no time then everything is static, nothing changes. We can only think and act because we are moving though time. ---
**Author:** ![mooka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@mooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mooka)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/26 "2003-05-13T15:33:07Z")
I’ve had one more thought. Quantum mechanics says that even in principle, it is impossible to know everything about a system. For certain pairs of variables, like position and momentum, there will always be a minimum amount of uncertainty. Eg If you know an objects’ momentum very precisely then its position is uncertain. So if quantum mechanics is correct, an omniscient being cannot exist. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/27 "2003-05-13T15:52:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emacknight \* > \*\*Right, it really shows that a person would smile where they want to or not. \*\* In fact, people often smile when they don’t want to, but that wasn’t my point. If you can predict whether a person will smile or not based on external factors, the question of whether they “want to or not” becomes less clear and arguably less meaningful. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/28 "2003-05-13T15:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Whereas you can deduce accurately into the past (in principle). \*\* wild speculation- Or in principle any series of events that result in a particular world state can be regarded as possible, and therefore merge… it is possible for a present to have multiple pasts too, if they do not contadict the present. that is to say- if you don’t know if a history is true or not, and there is no way of finding out, it _is_ true. Call it the sum over histories. Now tell me who Jack the Ripper was. * * * Sci-fi worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718/29 "2003-05-13T15:59:36Z")
> [@](#): > > But if quantum mechanics is correct then events don’t exist in the future - only probabilities do. No, the probabilities are the _only thing which can be known_ about the event anywhere to the “left” of the “now”. The relationship between time’s arrow and quantum mechanics is the subject of much current research and literature (most of which I find completely incomprehensible), but QM does not deny the nature of an “axis of events”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-god-see-the-future/174718.md?page=1)