Can God learn?

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by modernpaladin, May 26, 2019.

  1. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

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    I figured out the Santa story on my own by 8.
    I was also not getting satisfactory questions to questions god and bible questions at that age, but took many many more decades before I finally pulled the trigger.
     
  2. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

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    No, if you look at the remainder of his sentence you bolded, you need to define this god in better detail and have an agreement that this being is the god being talked about. IMO.
     
  3. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    not sure what age I was, i remember the year before my parents fessed up I had doubts and tried to stay awake to verify and of course my parents waited till I fell asleep
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2019
  4. yguy

    yguy Well-Known Member

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    I don't think He did that; but whatever He does as He interacts with humans has to be done at specific points in time, because that's where we live.
    Most likely because just as the Israelites had sunk low enough under the Pharaoh that some would appreciate Moses, they had sunk low enough under Herod that some would appreciate the Christ.
     
  5. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What a deliciously cheeky question. I don’t know the answer not being omniscient.
     
  6. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That was addressed in the OP.

    "God the Almighty and All-knowing, made Himself into a human and experienced life as one of His children, bereft of Omnipotence and perhaps Omnicience."

    I presume, since no alternative was provided, that this is the God being discussed.

    Which further details would you presume the other poster requires?
     
  7. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes.... i believe that the revolt of former Covering Cherub Lucifer was a surprise to YHWH and He and the Holy Spirit and the Word / Logos and the other Elohim didn't know exactly what to do at first....... because they had never experienced anything like it before.


    https://www.near-death.com/science/articles/richard-eby-and-secomd-coming-of-christ.html#a03
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2019
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  8. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  9. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    Is this referred to in the Bible, or is it a reasoning that we've made up?
     
  10. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Can God learn?

    That depends on which one....for example, in the Vedas Hindu Gods often learn and change by situation whereas the Christian one knows all and is omnipotent.
     
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  11. emilynghiem

    emilynghiem Active Member Past Donor

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    I agree more with @Distraff by defining God to mean eternal self-existent truth and laws, then any changes would already be written into the plan.

    What @modernpaladin is referring to is the authority of God or divine justice of God being made incarnate in Jesus and reconciling man with God.
    This is like asking if the Constitution already spells out laws of democratic governance as universal unchanging principles, can it be reformed and improved and still be absolute law. In that context, the answer is yes. It can still be absolute and universal in defining the process, and the process
    can include reforming and perfecting itself.

    The two contexts are separate that @Distraff and @modernpaladin are addressing.

    If you try mixing these two together, it sounds contradictory or even comical. (see poem below making fun of this very paradox)

    CLUELESS

    For once in eternity,
    God didn't know what to do, although he was omniscient.
    And knew it. Or thought so.
    He wasn't sure. If he knew all things in heaven and hell,
    which was a hell of a lot more than heaven alone,
    he'd instantly know in advance how to respond in the future.
    But he didn't. Nothing made sense anymore.

    The chances of humans' outsmarting God were lower than a snowball's chance in hell, or heaven and hell combined, whichever was worse.
    How could they set him up behind his back, in front of his face? Only God could achieve the impossible, so this must be his will, since it was clearly impossible. He was stunned. This made no sense, and he knew it.
    Or thought he did. Aarrgghh!

    Never mind, he assured himself, it's some trick of the Devil he allowed.
    Then made himself forget, since he was omnipotent.
    Only God could make himself forget that he forgot something, right?
    Just forget it, he thought.

    God tore through his files, searching. For deliberately random scribbles, or any clue why he might plan to forget whatever plans he forgot.
    There must be some note reminding him, but since he could not remember where he forgot he wrote it down, surely he planned all that!
    How else could he set up humans to set him up, unless he set that up, too? This whole thing smelled of a setup, right under his nose.

    Finding no answers, he found himself lost.
    For the first time in history, without beginning or end,
    God was clueless. If his plan was to prove his omniscience,
    now he knew how cluelessness felt.
    Otherwise, he wouldn't have a clue!
    He now knew what it meant not to know.
    At least he knew that much.
     
  12. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Thank you.......
    I am convinced that YHWH is working out a plan that will eventually lead to
    the absolute restoration of all things......
    including the angels that fell.....
    the Watchers who fell during the time of the Prophet and Patriarch Enoch.....
    and their children and grandchildren........

    but first...... humanity must be restored.....

    I personally have seen enough evidence from parapsycholgy to believe quite firmly in non-linear time
    which I think fits with AboveAlpha's Multiverse Theory quite nicely.......

    If G-d is applying Multiverse Theory and spinning off many, many, many fulfillments of
    Ezekiel chapter 37 then......
    all of this probably sprang out of what G-d learned from the fall of Lucifer and the fallen angels......

    Oh... Lucifer could largely be playing a role like Stanley Milgram Ph. D. and could actually
    have the most contempt for his most obedient followers......
    and his goal might even be to drive everybody to the Creator....
    and even to his arch-rival.... Messiah Yeshua - Jesus - Issa???????

    Could the prophet Elijah have altered history if he had NOT........

     
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  13. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So, you’ve just demoted The Almighty from being omniscient. If not he still has some difficult questions to answer on judgement day. Oh, I forgot, God isn’t going to be judged which gives us a deity who can commit any crime and get away with it.
    Isn’t theology interesting?
     
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  14. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Is that why people think Trump is God?
     
  15. CourtJester

    CourtJester Well-Known Member

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    Nonsense since if it can learn it clearly doesn't meet the Christian definition of god.
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2019
  16. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    How so?

    What is the Christian definition?
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2019
  17. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don’t know but some think he’s the anti-Christ.
     
  18. DennisTate

    DennisTate Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Or... we can think in terms of G-d as a Scientist - Inventor who just happens to be composed of fundamental energy and has existed from infinite time in the past.

    Personally.... I don't think that takes anything away from YHWH at all????

    www.CarbonBias.blogspot.ca/

    I am still seriously impressed by a YHWH who can plan and choreograph an infinite number of Big Bang type events..........
    even if I have only read material such as the following:


    https://www.near-death.com/experiences/exceptional/mellen-thomas-benedict.html#a05
     
  19. CourtJester

    CourtJester Well-Known Member

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    You don't know? Guess we are done here.
     
  20. Paul7

    Paul7 Well-Known Member

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    Jesus described people like you in the parable of the Sower.

    Not even close, but they we've been over this before.

    I do so every day, as do millions of others.
     
  21. Paul7

    Paul7 Well-Known Member

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    No. It would be a puny god who could be fully understood by fallen and finite men.

    "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Is. 55:9

    On God changing His mind: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/numbers-14-it-appears-moses-changed-mind-god-how-c/
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  22. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And 2nd Thessalonians 2:11
     
  23. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    yeah, the bible describes people like you too, but let's not get personal

    reading the bible cover to cover.. not just skim the parts you like
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2019
  24. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  25. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They must have published a picture book version.
     

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