Omniscience
"And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows; Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof; Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again; Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are ordained unto this condemnation."
"The same [Jesus Christ] which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes; "
Some thoughts on the nature of omniscience.
Some follow-up thoughts.
- Joseph Smith, Jr., "The King Follett Sermon", Ensign, Apr 1971 (Originally delivered April 7, 1844 at a conference of the Church in Nauvoo, Illinois)
"But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together. The Holy Ghost does, anyhow, and he is within me, and comprehends more than all the world; and I will associate myself with him."
Notes
My definition of omniscience, as a useful term, is having access to the answers to all questions withing the broadest domain possible, which it is possible to answer. I presuppose that there might be questions which could be answered, but that ought not be, because accessing the answers to those questions would compromise one's ability to answer questions in the broader domain. This is analogous to my definition of omnipotence and I cite D&C 76:45-48 for justification of the view that an unlimited omniscience is not possible, even for God. The idea of unlimited omniscience appears to be a doctrine of man.
I would further cite, ontologically, that I cannot justify the view that God has knowledge of all things in his head, but rather that he exercises pure and perfect principles, and, as is befitting his omnipotence, he has developed powers which allow him to be connected with (ie. have access to) all the information which falls under the heading of omniscience. I would further cite D&C 38:2 for justification for the view that having access to information is equivalent to knowing the information, for the purposes of obtaining functional omniscience.
Information, so far as we have ever been able to tell, is always stored physically, and I can think of no reason why the type of information access mechanism, whether, internal, external, centralized, or distributed, need have any bearing on whether God can be properly considered to be omniscient.