Can a truly omniscient being think?

It's true that you have to divide by zero in order to calculate the reference frame of light, but it's also true that as you approach C time passes ever slower. It's an oversimplification to say that light is frozen in time, but the example was just to provide a real world anchor point for the notion of something timeless that produces action.

A truly omniscient/omnipresent/omnipotent God would be something like an 11th dimensional being manipulating the 10th.

Or an N+X where X > 0 dimensional being manipulating the Nth dimension. But of course we've never found the door to flatland and have no reason to believe we would be gods there if we ever did.

And it is far from fruitless; this is a general case we can make some deductions on and then apply to the more specific case, like, for example, God.

Trying to qualify the capabilities of an extra-dimensional being is rather fruitless in the absence of real data about said being or said dimensions and how they work. Almost all of the conclusions one might draw (a being there could be omniscient, time could work in a different way; there is no way a being there could be omniscient, time would have to work in the same way, etc) are drawn if not from thin air then from the shakiest of shaky assumptions. One can satisfactorily dismiss the notion of gods without having to appeal to any knowledge or ignorance of metaphysics.

If you really don't know, then the appropriate thing to do is admit ignorance. And we really don't know about the physics or existence of other dimensions and what might or might not be possible there. The best we can do is use math to try to visualize higher spatial dimensions or use the unexplained arcana of physics to come up with wacky ideas like 11-dimensional string theory. The best of the best have at most a loose grasp on those kinds of concepts and how they might operate in the real world.

If there was a second time dimension, would it be orthogonal to the first one? If there was a third, would it be orthogonal to the first two, the way spatial dimensions are? How the hell would that work? Those are metaphysical questions and basically beyond human understanding even on a good day. Until we get solid evidence that this is indeed the way some aspect of the real world works we needn't concern ourselves with what the answers might be.

/r/TrueAtheism Thread Parent