Can anything surprise God?

[creekster]

I would answer, yes he can. I mean if he repented of something, wouldn't that mean he didn't know what he did was going to be wrong? Otherwise you would have to believe God errors knowing full well he is erroring.

When did God repent of something? Are you talking about when he repented of making man and decided to drown everyone except Noah? The JS translation changes that one a bit. But if you are serious, and suggesting that God repents, then to whom does he repent? And does that mean his errors are, like many or all of our (depending on definition) sins? A sinful God. Interesting.

[creekster]

I don't think that God deals with time the way we do. So as far as my God goes, past, present, and future is kind of irrelevant.

Then there can be no surprise to God. Moreover, there can be no free will. It is all pre-determined.

[SeattleUte]

Could anything ever make him say "Didn't see THAT coming!" or is such a thing impossible?

This must be inspired by that dumb joke Stephen Tobelowski told on the Toblowski files yesterday on NPR (he drew an analogy between a successful marriage and being patient as a dumb joke you have heard before is told to you).

[creekster]

I don't know if I can but I'll try. I assume that if God knows everything (past, present and future) or like someone later on said that his time is different than ours, that he could be stripped of emotion or at least emotions at a specific point of time. He would basically be in an eternal state of emotion based on the whole of everything that has happened and will happen. So if little Johnny pays his tithing, it doesn't make God happy because that act was already factored into God's eternal state of emotion. If little Johnny starts up his little factory, then it doesn't make God sad because that event was already factored into God's state of emotion, which is eternal and unchanging.

If God doesn't know everything (but he still knows a lot) then his emotions can change or flux from one act to another similar to what a person experiences when something good or bad happens that was unexpected or at least not fully anticipated.

Some may say that God could know everything and still have differing emotions, such as when a parent sees their child walk for the first time. Even though the parent knows the child will walk it's still a sight to behold for the first time and obviously causes emotion. I'd argue though that if God knows everything then he'd already have experienced the child walking and that would already be set in his current state of emotions.

The Mormon God is one that changes emotions. Sometimes he weeps and sometimes He's happy, which is why I think the Mormon God is much less omniscient than we make him out to be. Granted I've thought about this much more than the average Mormon (or so I assume) but an emotional and omniscient God doesn't really work for me.

This is an interesting question. To talk about it don't we first need to decide whether emotions are an artifact of our corporeal existence as opposed to embedded in our eternal souls? Does God really need to have emotions? Aren't emotions really a form of imperfection (if you get angry, or sad, etc., aren't you behaving in an imperfect manner?) If God knows all, past and future, how could he ever feel emotion about any event? We would all get exactly what we deserve and he would already know what was going to happen and what had happened and what choices we all make. Indeed, he knew it from before we existed. In fact, he created the conditions that caused it!

Of course if God doesn't know everything, then he is imperfect and being emotional fits fine, but it also raises all sorts of other problems.

[snowcat]

Then there can be no surprise to God. Moreover, there can be no free will. It is all pre-determined.

If time is linear, you are correct.

[Northwestcoug]

This is an interesting question. To talk about it don't we first need to decide whether emotions are an artifact of our corporeal existence as opposed to embedded in our eternal souls? Does God really need to have emotions? Aren't emotions really a form of imperfection (if you get angry, or sad, etc., aren't you behaving in an imperfect manner?) If God knows all, past and future, how could he ever feel emotion about any event? We would all get exactly what we deserve and he would already know what was going to happen and what had happened and what choices we all make. Indeed, he knew it from before we existed. In fact, he created the conditions that caused it!

Of course if God doesn't know everything, then he is imperfect and being emotional fits fine, but it also raises all sorts of other problems.

An eternal existence without emotions sounds extremely boring and dull for a God. But then again, an eternity of anything would get boring after an eon or so...

[creekster]

If time is linear, you are correct.

It doesn't matter. In fact, linearity is irrelevant. The concept of linearity is meaningless if one assume knowledge of all, past, present and future. especially when you created all of the conditions affecting the events you are considering.

[SoonerCoug]

Could anything ever make him say "Didn't see THAT coming!" or is such a thing impossible?

It is not possible because God does not exist.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

It is not possible because God does not exist.

The Louis CK monologue on SNL was a brutal indictment of atheism. I assume with continued destruction like that atheism really is going to decline and become less socially relevant over the next decade.

[YOhio]

The Louis CK monologue on SNL was a brutal indictment of atheism. I assume with continued destruction like that atheism really is going to decline and become less socially relevant over the next decade.

It's a PR nightmare for atheists.

[Jeff Lebowski]

It is not possible because God does not exist.

OK, that would surprise God!

[SeattleUte]

If God saw this coming and did nothing to stop it, he's a cold heartless bastard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/wo...cident.html?hp

[YOhio]

If God saw this coming and did nothing to stop it, he's a cold heartless bastard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/wo...cident.html?hp

It's not that he didn't want to do anything. Just that he was too busy helping LDS primary-aged children find their missing stuff.

[byu71]

If God saw this coming and did nothing to stop it, he's a cold heartless bastard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/wo...cident.html?hp

I guess you never heard of the story of Noah and the Ark. If you are inclined to call him a chb, then you really have a basis from that story.

However, if you can't understand why these things happen, you might want to read Isaiah 55:8-9

By the way that is a real trajedy. Too bad you made light of it by attacking someone's belief in God.

[Moliere]

If God saw this coming and did nothing to stop it, he's a cold heartless bastard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/wo...cident.html?hp

You assume that God cares about whether we live or die. That would be a difficult thing to care about when you have an eternal view of everything. Also, God already saw it coming and maybe he didn't care because it was already factored into his eternal state of emotion.