Philosophy of Religion 30:129-I 39, 1991. 9 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Middle knowledge and divine control: Some clarifications DAVID BASINGER Roberts Wesleyan College, 2301 Westside Drive, Rochester, NY 14624-19977 1. Introduction To say that God is omniscient, most philosophers and theologians agree, is to say that he knows all true propositions. 1 But there is a great deal of disagreement about what is knowable. Some believe that God's knowledge is limited to everything that is (or has been) actual and that which follow deterministically from it. He knows, for example, exactly what Caesar was thinking when he crossed the Rubicon and how many horses he had in his army that day. He knows exactly how Gorbachev really feels about the recent developments in Eastern Europe. And since God knows how the laws of nature that he has created function, he knows, for example, how certain weather systems will develop and what their effects will be on certain natural environments. But with respect to any future state of affairs that includes free human decision-making as a causal component, God is said not to know what will occur. God, as the ultimate psychoanalyst or behaviorist, can with great accuracy predict what individuals will freely decide to do in the future in many cases. He might well, for instance, be able to predict quite accurately who will win the 1996 Presidential election. But a God who possesses only 'present knowledge' cannot know who will win. Given that the election in question is dependent on free choices that have yet to be made, there is nothing at present for God to know. 2 Proponents of what is now often called 'simple foreknowledge' disagree. Statements describing what will actually happen, they argue, including those statements describing events related to what humans will freely do, are true now. It is true or false now that Mario Cuomo will be elected President in 1996 in the actual world. Not all of the relevant decisions have at this time been made. But Cuomo will either choose to run or choose not to run, he will either be nominated or not be nominated,