CAN God KNOW that God does not exist? Yes or No?
CAN YOU, ____, KNOW that God does not exist? Yes or No?
Two totally different questions.
They are, indeed,
different questions; the one is not the same question as the other. I'm not sure, however, what (if anything) you mean by "totally", here. Especially, since
both questions have the same
object, viz., the false proposition, 'God does not exist'. Though there is
difference between the two questions, there is also
similarity, or
commonality, between them.
The difference between them, of course, is that the subject of the one is God, whereas the subject of the other is not God, but is, rather, some man or woman who is not God.
The first is akin:
Q: "Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?"
A: illogical question.
What you wrote--"Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?"--is not a
question at all. It is simply nonsense with a question mark stuck onto it. Since the phrase, 'a rock [God] cannot pick up', is meaningless, the whole string of words--"Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?"--is meaningless, as well. Adding those extra words ("Can God make"), and the question mark, does not magically transmute it from being nonsense into being something intelligible.
Inasmuch as what you wrote ("Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?") is not even a question, the question that I asked ("Can God know that God does not exist?") is not "akin" to what you wrote. At least, it is not akin in the sense that one question, as a question, is akin to another question, as a question. I suppose you could say that the question, "Can God know that God does not exist?", is "akin" to what you wrote in the sense that both are made up of words, and that some of the same words occur in both, such as 'can', and 'God'.
Here is a list of a few meaningless phrases:
- 'a square that is a circle'
- 'a dog that is not a dog'
- 'a rock too heavy for God to lift'
- 'a being that does not exist'
- 'the tooth fairy'
- 'the flying spaghetti monster'
- 'illogical question'
- 'meaningless question'
- 'nonsensical proposition'
It is a nonsense question that contradicts itself,
There is another meaningless phrase: 'nonsense question'. Questions are meaningful. Questions are not nonsense. Whatever is meaningless, whatever is nonsensical, is not a question.
Also, though I'm not going to get into it in this post, I would note that, despite popular usage, it is the case that no thing contradicts
itself; it takes two, distinct things for contradiction to occur:
- the thing doing the contradicting,
- the thing being contradicted
Thus, here is another nonsense phrase: "thing that contradicts itself".
much like impossible drawings
No drawing is impossible; 'impossible drawings' is a nonsense phrase. All the drawings I've ever done, or seen done, were, as it turns out, possible.
of things that cannot exist other than on paper.
Perhaps you'd be willing to give an example or two of things to which you would be willing to tag the phrase, "thing(s) that cannot exist other than on paper".
As teachers, we say there are no 'stupid' questions,
No question is stupid. Only persons are/can be stupid.
My answer "yes" or "no" would provide you with no further information.
If you're referring to the question, "Can God know that God does not exist?", answering "Yes" to it could only be driven by irrational thinking. Answering "No" to it is the only Biblical, and (therefore) rational, answer.
Of course God cannot know that God does not exist!! The proposition, 'God does not exist', is a falsehood.
Obviously betsy123, though a proud promoter of irrational thinking, is unwilling to willfully walk herself right into overtly appearing so irrational as to answer the question with a "Yes. God can know that God does not exist." Obviously, only an extremely debased mind--a genuine fool--could answer the question in that manner. Yet, betsy123 also knows, in light of all the affirmations she's already laid out in her posts, that it would be a serious embarrassment to her claims, were she to agree with rational, Biblically-minded people, by openly confessing, "No. God cannot know that God does not exist." So, she has decided to take the weasel's way by simply stonewalling against the question, and puffing out some gibberish which she vainly imagines will serve to exempt her from having to answer the question.
We'd be where we left off with such nonsense and worse for the endeavor for you might have confirmed something in your mind that you've no right to affirm or deny by such such a lacking question."
A better question, simple to answer: Is Jeremiah 32:17 true? "Do you believe it?"
For me: "Yes." "Yes."
I believe Jeremiah 32:17. Since it is written
"Ah Lord God! ....there is nothing too hard for thee",
obviously
it would not be too hard for God, Who is rational, and the very Author of
our rationality, to answer "NO!!!!" to the question: "Ah Lord God, can You know that You do not exist?"
Would you say that, from Jeremiah 32:7, or any other verse in the Bible, we ought to arrive at the idea that it is not too hard for God to sin against Himself?
Only rank, sanctimonious hypocrisy can stand there--as betsy123 does--and accuse others of acting like the rebellious Lucifer simply because they, thinking in a Biblical, logically-consistent way, are willing to declare the truth that there are, indeed, things that God cannot do, and things that God cannot know.
Anyone who wishes to say, "God knows everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in the widest, most absolutely inclusive sense imaginable", is saying, therein, that "God knows the false proposition, 'God does not exist'".
If so, then God is to say what God knows.
Are you entertaining the idea, here, that,
perhaps, God knows/can know that God does not exist? Sheesh, I hope not.
To claim that God can know the God-blaspheming falsehood that God does not exist makes the claimant as much a fool as it would make a person a fool to claim that God can know that something greater than God exists.
Here are some interesting questions:
Can God know that He does not exist? Yes or No?
Can God know that something greater than Himself exists? Yes or No?
Can God know that He is evil? Yes or No?
With no difficulty, whatsoever, I, for one, exercising my God-granted rationality upon the propositions God gives us in His God-breathed Scripture, answer "No!!!!" to each of them. Only overt pagans, and simpletons who have fallen under the spell of many world-acclaimed irrationalist miscreants misnamed "philosophers" could refuse to answer "No!!!!".