[insert your own segue here]
Operations Management and God: I have often wondered how it would be possible for the Author of the Cosmos to really, truly be omniscient. I mean to say, that He is omniscient I have no doubt and can take on faith. But the "how" of it, you see, is as interesting to me as the "why" of it. How can He possibly know all that is, was, or "ever shall be"? Specifically, from an operations standpoint, how is this accomplished? What systems/mechanisms has He in place to manage this feat? Forgive me if I am thinking "not as God... but as man". I can't really help it. I will concede from the outset that it is likely He needs no system logistics control whatsoever... but if he did... erm... how might it work?Omniscience and Free Will: One difficulty many have with the idea of omniscience is the strong impulse to accept the heresy of Predestination. And it is a somewhat natural conclusion to come to if one prefers the idea of an omniscient creator who already knows the choices you will make (now, then, and into the future) over the weird idea that He knows without really knowing what choices you will make... or that he knows the choices you will make before you know them... which kind of makes living a lifetime of choices appear a sadistic experiment of some sort (if the outcome is already known).
In any event, how can we allow for His omniscience AND Free Will. I suggest Quantum Physics has something to tell us in this regard.
The Space-Time Web: I am a total amateur with this stuff, so 1) don't take my weak explanations as "gospel", 2) forgive me my clunkiness.
OK, without going through the experiments as they were described in the book, which were great, I will try my hand at trying to describe the gist of a portion of the behavior of Photons as described by Greene which actually have something to do with the larger point I am trying to make.
(insert deep breathe)
You go to the local car dealer. You bring along a friend of yours because you plan on keeping your old car and need someone to drive it home while you drive your new car home.
You purchase a new car, hand the keys to your old car to your buddy, when he says, "Hey, sorry man, I wasn't really paying attention on the way here. How do I get to your place." You sigh, because this is typical of your friend. But he's the best you could get on short notice. And it is Saturday, so he's doing you a pretty decent favor.
"Well, there are two ways to get to my place from here," you say. You bust out a pad of paper and a pen and map the two possible routes. You leave some minutes after he does and when you get home, you're nonplussed because your old car is parked right next to ... your old car... how can this be? You walk up between both cars completely perplexed. You look in the one car... yep, this is your car. How strange. You look in the other car and you freak out a little because it is also your old car. Each is exactly the same in every way. You go around the the bumper in the back to look for the telltale crack left from the last time you left the bar. You find it on the one car and then, sure as sh**, you also find the exact same crack in the "other" car. What the f*ck?
Your buddy comes out of your house and sits on the porch, cracking open a beer from your fridge. Glad he's made himself at home. You are confident you've completely cracked, so you say to him, "Hey, ummmm, notice anything weird?" Your buddy looks up. "No. What's up." You point to the driveway. "Wow, I'm seeing double! Cool. Where'd you get it? And how'd it get here?"
"That's what I was going to ask you," you reply.
"Huh?"
"Where'd the other car come from?" you inquire. Your buddy shrugs his shoulders. "How the hell should I know?" he says.
You're starting to get pissed off now. "Dude, stop messin' with me."
"What the hell are you talking about?" says your friend, a little miffed now. "I just left the dealership and came straight here."
"Well, which way did you go?" you ask. Your friend just shrugs his shoulders.
"I dunno, it's strangely hazy. I honestly don't recall."
"Well, it's real easy, moron. Did you take Main past the old cemetery? Or, did you take Apache past the Public Library?"
"Yes," says your friend.
"Dude! It's not a 'yes' or 'no' question."
"What?" says you pal.
"Did you take Main past the old cemetery to get here?" you ask again.
"Yes."
"Okay. That's better. You made it sound like you took Apache past the library too."
"But I did go past the library."
"Dammit: did you go past the library on Apache?"
"Yes. I did."
"And you're saying you also took Main past the cemetery."
"Right. Exactly."
You look back out at the driveway. The two identical cars are both there, as is the new car you just bought. You pinch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming and then start looking around for cameras. This must be some type of hoax.
"I am going to settle this once and for all. You stay here."
"Fine. And get me another beer when you come back."
"Screw you! Get it your damn self," you say. "Go ahead and make your self at home while you're at it."
You go to your backyard, open up the shed, and pull the cover off of your time machine. It's been awhile since you've lit this puppy up. But a quick check reveals all systems go. So you set the chronometer to the precise time your buddy left the lot. Nothing weird there. Just as you recalled it.
You fast forward to when you arrived home. Lo and behold, there are two identical cars in your driveway.
So, you go back in time and surveil the route on Main. You are confident your buddy didn't take this route because otherwise you would have seen him pass by. So, you return to the shed and when you come around the corner, you only see one old beater of a car. All seems well with the world and you tell your buddy so.
But this bothers you. So, curiosity gets the better of you and you go back in time to the dealership, see him leave in your old car and then you fast-forward back to the shed. You come around the corner and there are 2 old cars in the driveway. What the hell?
A glutton for punishment, you go back in time again, camp out on Apache street and sure enough you see your buddy drive by. So, now you've confirmed he took Apache. You return to the future, come around the corner to find only one old car.
You start to think that something here has to do with your knowledge of the route that your buddy took. When you didn't see him pass on Main, you knew he must've taken Apache. When you camped out on Apache, you witnessed him pass by. In both cases, you came to find only one car in the driveway. Otherwise, there were 2 old cars in the driveway.
So, you decide to return to Main and you freak because you witness your buddy drive by this time. You go back to the future and confirm there is only one car in the driveway.
This is completely freaky. It appears that your friend remembers it properly: you have witnessed him take both routes... not simultaneously... cause your time machine isn't bilocality-enabled... but it is going back in time to the same exact moment. Whether you camp out at Main or on Apache.
What you conclude is that your buddy travels both paths simultaneously when you do not observe/surveil Main or Apache. But once you witness him passing by or conclude that he went the other route, something changes and he shows up at your house with one car.
What is points to is that absent observing the actual route, your buddy has in fact taken both routes/paths to end up in your driveway... simultaneously driving 2 identical cars.
It is in the act of determining his route that the Cosmos seems to retroactively "decide" only one path can be taken... therefore avoiding a paradox.
The Point, Please: I think God, if indeed he needed a mechanism to enable omniscience, would use something similar, if not precisely the same, as the behavior photons exhibit. He has the ability to know all possibilities, all things that may or could possibly be, all the choices we could possibly make as individuals, all possible outcomes based on all the inter-relatedness of all possible choices throughout time... He has the ability to reconcile one individual choice made in India in the present day with a choice made 5000 years ago in what would become Mexico City, with a decision some future denizen of Earth (or Moon) might make some time in the future, at the moment and retroactively choosing the path from one decision to another.
This is the only way I can think of that properly describes how we can explain Free Volition AND the Omniscient nature of the One.
This is a really difficult thing for me to explain... I am still trying to formulate the finer points of this theo-ry... and I'm sure I've butchered something or another. But, I found it interesting... so I thought I'd float it by the BloodyScotts.
