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Omniscience

capacity to know everything

Omniscience mainly in religion, is the capacity to know everything that there is to know. In particular, Hinduism, Jainism and the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) believe that there is a divine being who is omniscient. An omniscient point-of-view, in writing, is to know everything that can be known about a character, including past history, thoughts, feelings, etc. In Latin, 'omnis' means "all" and 'sciens' means "knowing".

All the attributes of God, except omnipotence, are inferences. His omnipresence, His omniscience, His justice, mercy, and truth, are the deductions of reason, and however true and demonstrable, they exercise little influence over the mind; - Sir David Brewster.


CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

Quotes

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Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

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His views, policy and purposes were sometimes even more astounding than his curious gaps or lapses of omniscience. On the whole, the relation was the queerest that Henry Adams ever kept up.
  • His views, policy and purposes were sometimes even more astounding than his curious gaps or lapses of omniscience. On the whole, the relation was the queerest that Henry Adams ever kept up.
 
It's all ridiculous and enjoyable, and at the movie's center is an actress creatively guessing at what omniscience might feel like. - Ty Burr.
  • What mystifies me is how he or any one else can determine what is a desirable type of industry such as should qualify for special assistance of this kind. In my own simple way I should have thought that a desirable industry was, almost by definition, one which could establish itself and thrive without special assistance in ordinary market conditions. Anything else suggests a degree of omniscience which I, at least, am not prepared to credit even the most expert with. I trust the commercial judgment only of those who are themselves taking the risks.
  • Whatever seemed unattainable to his desires - or forbidden to him - he attributed to these gods. One may say, therefore, that these gods were the ideals of his culture. Now he has himself approached very near to realizing this ideal, he has nearly become a god himself. But only, it is true, in the way that ideals are usually realized in the general experience of humanity. Not completely; in some respects not at all, in others only by halves. Man has become a god by means of artificial limbs, so to speak, quite magnificent when equipped with all his accessory organs; but they do not grow on him and they still give him trouble at times.

G - L

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  • Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone. The world, however, is very censorious, and will hardly give a man credit for simplicity and singleness of heart, who is not only in the habit of changing his opinions, but also of bettering his fortunes by every change.

M - R

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  • The philosophers have uttered very perverse ideas as regards God's Omniscience of everything beside Himself; they have stumbled in such a manner that they cannot rise again, nor can those who adopt their views.
 
What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe that we should ever apply that economic, political, and military power unilaterally. -Robert McNamara.
 
The law of reality, that A is non-A, and that omniscience [is] about the physical universe (including electricity, gravitation, the solar system, etc … - Ayn Rand.
 
...Although Gommaṭeśvara achieved omniscience and became a kevalin, he did not preach in a samavasaraṇa and therefore did not become a Tīrthaṅkara. - Lisa N. Owen.

S - Z

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In Theravada Buddhism, Buddha's omniscience is claimed only with respect to diagnosing the cause of dukkha and prescribing the way of removing it,... - Arvind Sharma .
 
The Jina or the 'conquering saint', who has conquered all worldly desires is with Jains what the Buddha or the perfectly enlightened saint is with Buddhas. He is also called Jineswara (chief of the Jinas), Arhat, "the venerable ", Tirthankara or the saint who has made the passage of the world,Sarvajna (omniscient), Bhagavat (holy one). - Swami Sivananda.
  • According to the belief of the Jains, only the omniscient are able to give a right code of rules of life. These teachers or Tirthankaras are not creators or rulers of the world. They are pure divine souls, who have attained perfection. They never again take human birth.
 
...When we look at the canvas, then, we glimpse in a small way how God understands the universe--for he sees it from every point of view at once. By populating the world with so many different minds, each with its own point of view, God gives us a suggestion of what it means to be omniscient... -Neal Stephenson.
 
Omniscience, the foremost attribute of a liberated jiva, is the emblem of its purity; thus, a liberated soul, such as a Tirthankara, is called a kevalin (“possessor of omniscience”). However, not all kevalins are Tirthankaras: becoming a Tirthankara requires the development of a particular type of karmic destiny. -G. Ralph Strohl
  • And yet viewing several depictions of even an imaginary city, is enlightening in a way, Leibniz said. "Each painter can view the city from only one standpoint at a time, so he will move about the place, and paint it from a hilltop on one side, then a tower on the other, then from a grand intersection in the middle--all in the same canvas. When we look at the canvas, then, we glimpse in a small way how God understands the universe--for he sees it from every point of view at once. By populating the world with so many different minds, each with its own point of view, God gives us a suggestion of what it means to be omniscient."
  • Omniscience, the foremost attribute of a liberated jiva, is the emblem of its purity; thus, a liberated soul, such as a Tirthankara, is called a kevalin (“possessor of omniscience”). However, not all kevalins are Tirthankaras: becoming a Tirthankara requires the development of a particular type of karmic destiny.
    • G. Ralph Strohl in: Karma, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 March 2014.
  • No End of Fun
    So he got to have happiness,
    he's got to have truth, too,
    he's got to have eternity
    did you ever!
    He has only just learned to tell dreams from waking;
    only just realized that he is he;
    only just whittled with his hand né fin
    a flint, a rocket ship;
    easily drowned in the ocean's teaspoon,
    not even funny enough to tickle the void;
    sees only with his eyes;
    hears only with his ears;
    his speech's personal best is the conditional;
    he uses his reason to pick holes in reason.
    In short, he's next to no one,
    but his head's full of freedom, omniscience, and the Being.
    beyond his foolish meat—
    did you ever!
  • To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn.
 
...omniscience is only taunting if it is unaccompanied by mercy; and immutability is only torturous if there is no guarantee of goodwill.

See also

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