In this essay, I will be arguing that the Bible's view of God being omniscient leads to conflicts with other key conceptions founded in the Bible.
First, the Bible's conception of God's omniscience conflicts with the Bible's conception of free will. To prove this statement, we need to first ask the question: does God know the future? Based on our definition of omniscience and the conception of God, we can claim that God knows everything. If God knows everything, then he must know the future. Now, what do we know about free will? We know that in order for free will to occur, a person, 'P,' must be able to freely choose between more than one action and must not be forced into doing that action. So, since God knows the future, he can predict future events. Suppose that God predicts that at time 't1', P will commit a certain action. If God knows what P will do at t1, when t1 is occurring, does P have a choice whether to commit to action or to commit a different action? If God is all-knowing it will seem that P will not have a choice, since in order for someone to know something, it must be a true belief. Since God believes what will happen and it does happen, God knows that P will commit that certain action at t1. Let's create a thought experiment for clarity. Suppose that Bert decides that he wants to go skateboarding rather than do his homework. If God knew that Bert would go skateboarding rather than do his homework, then even though Bert thought he made a choice to go skateboarding, it was just an illusion. Bert's action was already decided long before Bert was faced with he decision. Since in God knowing Bert's actions, Bert's actions cannot be changed. If Bert did do his homework rather than skateboarding, God would not have known Bert's fate or the future, which would imply that he is not omniscient. Because, if God's belief was true it would be necessary for the belief to happen.
