Donal: if God knows all then S/He must know what is to come, but if this is known then God cannot be empowered to change what is to come because the capacity to change it would mean it cannot be known in advance;
Objections: (1) There is nothing in the concept of God to establish that "Godly knowing" is in any way similar to human knowing. There is likely nothing to be said about God or what we presume to be attributes of God. (2) Theology outlined in the JOHN (which Faust is reading when Mephistopheles approaches) can be construed to mean that all times happen at once; in other words, because we are "in time," we are blind to the ever-present and singular aspect of time. Because God, in this version of God, sees all time as a single moment, there is nothing to prevent a change in the past or to deny the ongoing perfection of what happens. This view contrasts eternity (being outside of time) with infinite arrow-of-time (one damned thing after another).
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