Philosophy - Boethius and Aquinas on the Problem of God's Prescience Essay

Philosophy - Boethius and Aquinas on the Problem of immortals learning - Essay ExampleThis only serves to pronounces the clash with freewill. The Problem of Gods Prescience The conflict hence forms the basic premise of the Problem. God as the master of all things tangible and intangible is assumed to know incomprehensible details some human life and the tendency it will take. As such, His knowledge about a particular event precedes the event itself, thereby exemplifying his unique efficacy of knowing the future. This belief in Gods ubiquitousness forms one of the core foundations of his Divinity across the board of religions, whether the one in question is Christianity, Judaism or Islam. The Bible, Torah, and the Quran all repeatedly assert His pervasiveness carefully contrasting it with His limitless power. The masses of religions preach the notion that God is to be found everywhere at all times and no aspect or eventuality escapes His gaze. Superficially, this ideology is rea dily admissible but when theologians venture to expound their gifts of insight onto the subject, striving to apologise the Divine Knowledge, the one immediate problem they tend to notice is the apparent conflict with freewill. This is because the concept of freewill indicates that every human is capable of altering the occupation of his life as he deems fit by exercising discretionary powers of judgment. If God is to possess all knowledge of all time, this discretion may not in actuality exist, since God would already know the direction a particular individual would be expected to take. If the individuals future is already conceptualise in Gods eternal knowledge, the individuals course of action could simply be labeled predetermined, even though he in his own right may be employing the gift of freewill. This notion forms what has come to be known as the Problem of Gods Prescience. Boethiuss ideologies Boethius in his Consolation of Philosophy sought to answer the very questions t hat formed the crux of the Problem. Firstly, it must be elucidated that incidents are historically conceived by philosophers to be of two kinds, demand and contingent. Gods omniscience pertains to all knowledge that exists in the world, including the murkiest of thoughts that originate in a persons mind. Hence, any thought, if formulated by a conscious course of judgment in a persons mind, should be deemed contingent. It is contingent because it is not necessary for a person to think a sure thought, as his freewill allows him to develop a unique mindset, but if God already knows what his mindset would be, that contingent thought could become a necessary course of action for the person to take, as not taking that course of action would render Gods knowledge flawed. If it is assumed that God already knows the thought that is about to transpire, its contingency is made redundant. This, in essence, negates freewill and converts seemingly contingent occurrences into necessary occurren ces since God already knows of their presence. As such, Boethius twin-prong ideologies regarding the problem emerge. His first limb identifies that Gods omniscience and perfection go hand in hand and can never be rebutted,