Does a God have to be perfect or can it just be as good as it gets?

Question

The Jewish/Christian/Muslim idea of a God is one that is perfect while ancient religions believed in Gods and Goddesses that had faults and foibles.

Which is the more realistic belief?

Answer 1

ancient way is best.... Gods have flaws. Some serve LAW and some serve CHAOS but all have a certain amount of THE BALANCE.
It is the BALANCE we should strive for, not some impossible ideal of perfection. That goes for all life, physical or otherwise.

Answer 2

God is perfect.
God is not some some old man with a long white beard, God is the total of all the forces and mechanisms in the universe. Since we cannot alter these properties of the universe, but have to live by them, then God must by definition be perfect from our point of view.
Example: Throw a ball into the air - it will come back down due to the force of gravity - everytime and every ball, perfectly.
every grain of sand on every beach, held to the earth, perfect score, not one lost to outer space because gravity missed it.
Grandma's false teeth fall out, onto the floor, not the ceiling, everytime.
The sun rises every morning, never misses, whatever the weather.
One day the sun will die, as many other stars have, according to God's laws, perfect score.

Get the picture?

Answer 3

Nothing can be more perfect than God. It was really the Greeks and Romans who had a pantheon of Gods who were described as having foibles and were subject to human emotions. These 'Gods' were rejected by most people. In ancient Greece Socrates was particularly scathing about them and even suggested that Homer should be ignored because the portrait of 'God' was, in his view, unacceptable. God has to be perfect otherwise he could not be divine.

Answer 4

If they were perfect then they should be able to get along with the other Gods and teach their followers to be more tollerant too.

I don't believe in any God, but I would have to say the latter was a more realistic approach. It's a big flaw to think you were perfect.

Answer 5

just a theory of mine but god cant be perfect. he created the angels, yet his favourite angel sinned through 'pride' which meant that god made a mistake when making the angels. unless of course the angel did it by free choice, but if god is perfect, he is also perfect with knowledge and therefore all knowing. if he is all knowing he would have forseen the angels demise and yet he did not doing anything to prevent which meant that he did this though spite of his angel which is a sin which means that god sinned. either way this means that god cannot be prefect if we follow the story that is written within the old testiment. but hey who knows...

Answer 6

The 'precocious kid in the science lab' analogy just about does it for me. Although his relative came along and believed we had our own intrinsic rights.
Anyone who believes his God is perfect is an underachiever.
Ancient religions are no better, they have gods for everything even when they sneeze.
A God who refuses to be questioned has something to hide.

Answer 7

Realistically, I think a "perfect" God could've done a better job, so I'd say the latter.

Answer 8

If we are made in God's image (with freedom of choice) then God is perfection from our point of view.

Roman/Greek (etc) Gods were given faults by man to excuse man's faults (in my opinion).

Answer 9

In greek mythology, Gods and Goddeses were higher beings with powers who were immortal, but essentially had all the flaws and weaknesses of humans (ei: Zeus and his wondering eye, and all the ilegitimate children he popped with mortals)

Answer 10

If one God created all existence...he could create himself as perfect.