Question of omniscience

[CLAspinster]

Originally Posted by ArtificialBrandon

Those virtues, however, were dependent upon the existence of a "higher" realm of ideas. There was still an element of mysticism in that line of thought.

I wouldn't call it mysticism. Knowledge of say, the Platonic forms, was akin to knowledge of mathematics. They are not hazy and vague but made clear by the light of reason.

Doesn't good need the alternative of evil in order to be defined as good? Good can't exist without evil.

EDIT: It's similar to how "truth" is a meaningless term if there isn't a possibility of falsehood. In Augustine's definition, it ceases being a choice between "good and evil" and becomes a choice between mere "obedience and disobedience."

It depends on whether you take the statement "God is good" as an identity statement or a subject-predicate one in the sense of "apples are red". Granted, there is probably an equivocation here and both interpretations probably have some truth in Xian doctrine (Seth?), but I have always thought of God as not just "something that is good" but the source of all good. And so, evil being the absence of good (God) makes both the terms good an evil dependent on Him.