How God Knows vs. How We Know

Most Christians would agree that, although man is made in His image, God is greater than man. Amongst other things, this means that God is more powerful, more knowledgeable, etc. This has been generally understood as the Creator/creature Distinction. When it comes to this distinction, however, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the quantitative difference between God and man. When we talk about omniscience in particular, it is common to emphasize the difference between God and man in quantitative terms - God so great that He knows all things unlike man who is ignorant of most things.


Reformed Christians, however, would also want to emphasize the qualitative distinction between Creator and creature. In the case of omniscience, there isn’t just a quantitative difference between God’s knowledge and man’s knowledge, there is a qualitative difference as well. When it comes to knowledge, scope is not the only thing that matters - the method of knowing is important as well. 


We can identify two methods of knowing based on the relationship between the subject of knowledge and object of knowledge. There's the analytic method (analysis), and the synthetic method (synthesis). 


In the analytic method, the object of knowledge is wholly dependent on the subject of knowledge and as such, the subject gains knowledge of the object by simply analyzing their own mind. An example would be an author’s knowledge of their characters. All George Lucas needs to do to know the height of Luke Skywalker is to consult his own mind. This is because the object of knowledge (Luke’s height) is dependent on his own rational activity.


In the synthetic method, the object of knowledge is independent of the subject of knowledge and as such, the subject must investigate or experience a mind-independent world in order to know the object. Our knowledge of most things falls into this category. I cannot know how many grains are in a bag of rice by just consulting my mind - I actually have to count. This is because my mind does not determine how many grains are in the bag.


God knows analytically - His rational activity is constructive of the facts therefore He simply needs to analyze His own thoughts in order to know any fact. Man knows synthetically - the objects of knowledge are independent of his rational activity so he must investigate the facts in order to know them.


However, man’s synthesis is only fruitful due to God’s analysis. God’s mind determines the objects of knowledge and through revelation He reveals fundamental categories that allow man’s synthesis to get off the ground. On the unbeliever’s view, there is no subject whose knowledge is analytic. This means that all knowledge must be gained by synthesis. The problem with this is that synthesis cannot provide knowledge of universals. I go into this and more in Chapter 6 of The Best Argument for Christianity titled “Analysis, Synthesis, and Human Knowledge”. You can check it out here.


God bless!


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