Omniscience Vs. Indeterminacy or Free Will
Another pair of alleged incompatible properties is omniscience and either indeterminacy or free will. Omniscience concerning the past and present (properly defined relative to Earth) is not a problem, but some people argue that omniscience regarding the future implies it has been determined, what seems possible only in a deterministic world.
Read more about this topic: Incompatible-properties Argument
Famous quotes containing the words free will, omniscience and/or free:
“Here we have bishops, priests, and deacons, a Censorship Board, vigilant librarians, confraternities and sodalities, Duce Maria, Legions of Mary, Knights of this Christian order and Knights of that one, all surrounding the sinner’s free will in an embattled circle.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
““The matrix is God?”
“In a manner of speaking, although it would be more accurate ... to say that the matrix has a God, since this being’s omniscience and omnipotence are assumed to be limited to the matrix.”
“If it has limits, it isn’t omnipotent.”
“Exactly.... Cyberspace exists, insofar as it can be said to exist, by virtue of human agency.””
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
—Anonymous.
An axiom from economics popular in the 1960s, the words have no known source, though have been dated to the 1840s, when they were used in saloons where snacks were offered to customers. Ascribed to an Italian immigrant outside Grand Central Station, New York, in Alistair Cooke’s America (epilogue, 1973)