> > > I think the only way to know for sure about any of this is to ask God Himself.
> >
> > How would you then know for sure? Even if you *did* have an apparent conversation with God...for all you know, you might just be talking to an advanced alien life form maliciously pretending to be God.
>
> I wasn't saying to ask God in this life. I'm talking about when one gets to Heaven to ask Him. I know that there's no way that I could recieve an answer of that magnitude from God even if He did give me one.
>
> Wedge Antilles

Ah, point taken. I wasn't thinking in terms of the afterlife. I suppose it might be the case that in Heaven, a soul gains true understanding of everything. But I still can't completely convince myself of the possibility of absolute certainty of knowledge. As long as there's the slightest possibility of being under some form of illusion, how can you completely be sure of anything? Sometimes I think that the only type of statement which can be made with absolute certainly is: "I exist." (For if I *don't* exist, I didn't make the statement anyway, so there's no problem.)

I've often had the strange thought: how does God know for sure he's really God? Is there some completeness/closure property of his knowledge and power which precludes the possibility of an illusion on an even grander scale than his domain of influence? Perhaps there is.