omniscience

     Omniscience, as in being all-knowing, is usually attributed only to God, by people who believe in God. An argument to keep the theologians off the streets, I suppose. If you have been reading something, and the subject of omniscience is introduced, it may refer to omniscience in its literary form. When we say that an author is "omniscient", we mean that the author is privy even to the thoughts and beliefs of his or her characters. We know this because the author tells us when he or she tells us what the character is thinking. Some stories use dialog to tell us what the character thinks--we are privy conversations that happen when we are not there. But omniscience means we hear even the innermost thoughts and feelings--as if the author were a supernatural being or a god. After all, an author can create beings ( in print ), and do away with them mercilessly ( in print ). That matches a lot of notions people have about God or gods.