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Have been reading discussions about omnipotence and omniscience and got lost in the arguments. To me it seems there is no consistent definition of omniscience or omnipotence.

But one thing struck me. Surely, if you are 'all powerful' and 'all knowing' you would be able to see multiple possible futures (allowing for free will) and change these as and when you wanted.

You would also know what you were going to do and when, which would mean an 'all powerful' being would exist outside our concept of time.

.......

Siany
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  • "change your mind" or "change the future" ? – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Dec 14 '18 at 08:43
  • [Omnipotence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence) means "having unlimited power". Thus, an omnipotent Being will not change the future : the future will be exactly what he decided. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Dec 14 '18 at 08:45
  • Could you elaborate on what your exact question is? What do you mean by "change your mind", specifically in what sense would it contradict omnipotence? – Yechiam Weiss Dec 14 '18 at 13:14
  • @MauroALLEGRANZA but p having unlimited power over x does not entail that all the properties of x are determined by p – ChristopherE Dec 14 '18 at 15:03
  • I see the Dawkins tag. Is there a quote from Dawkins that motivates the question? There can be multiple answers to this. A *logical* answer requires that one starts with non-contradictory definitions of omniscience and omnipotence to see where they lead. Welcome to this SE! – Frank Hubeny Dec 14 '18 at 15:14
  • "You would be able to see multiple possible futures (allowing for free will)", yes. "And change these as and when you wanted", no. You won't be able to change anything, as you already have seen *all* possibilities. All you can do is choose which of them to actualize, and even there you are constrained by self-imposed commitment to respect free will. – Conifold Dec 15 '18 at 03:09
  • questions like [this](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/901/does-god-have-free-will) may help? –  Dec 15 '18 at 05:29

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The boring answer:

If you are omnipotent, by definition, you can be anything and exist wherever/whenever/however you want.

On the more longwinded side:

The question doesn't make much sense. When using any of the "omni-"s, you kind of have to accept that ordinary logic doesn't apply. Omnipotence especially, almost requires that it doesn't adhere to any logical rules or you run into problems like "Can God create a boulder he can't lift?"

An omnipotent beeing, by it's nature, can have any nature it desires, at the same time, or none at all. Concepts like time, position, existence, or causation only affect it in so far as it wants it to. It is defined by what it wants, not what it is (and even that it can change without stopping being omnipotent).

Or you can go the other way and simply say, as for as humans can comprehend it, there can be no true omnipotence, because there can be no paradoxes.

From a practical point of view

We have no idea of the mechanics of free will, nor of omnipotence, nor of omniscience, and only a limited understanding of time/space, thus we can make no assumptions about how they interact or what their requirements are.

TheSexyMenhir
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