Does the existence of evil prove that God is finite?

Question

Finite godism was popularized in the early 1980s by Rabbi Harold Kushner, author the the best selling book"When bad things happen to good people". In wrestling with the premature death of his son, Kushner concluded that God wants the rightous to live happy lives, but sometimes he cannot bring it about. There are some things that God simply cannot control. God is good,but is not powerful enough to bring about all the good things he desires. In short, God is finite.

Answer 1

Rabbi Kushner is an intelligent man but by Christian standards, a poor Jewish rabbi. After Judaism gave birth to Christianity and hope eternal, and belief in the omnipotence and infinteness of God.
Anyway to answer your question succiently, I am going to quote what (rabbi) Jesus said about this, which is different from what Kushner "perceives" in his finite being: (make of it what you will, but I think He knew what He was talking about)

Answer 2

no. God is not finite. nevertheless, it's suggested that believing in such belief as finite God is wrong. everything happens according to will of God. everything happens for a good reason. there's good in every happening. it's true that sometimes bad things happen with good folks but when bad things happen, they leave a negative effect on our minds and under which negative effects we don't have to consider God finite, or try to defy God's powers. because all sudden something bad happens we don't have to blame that it's God's fault or God's finite? and my sympathies are with the Rabbi who had to endure his son's death and carry his dead body to the final resting place. and i suggest that to that Rabbi that he's a Rabbi and he must know more about God than an average man and yet he still puts Cannot with God? it's not like that, God controls everything and I recall of the Rabbi's that statement as of emotionally shattered father's rather than a Rabbi's respectively. and yes God can make all worst of worst into heavenly. but remember that what we want suddenly can't come in front of our eyes in an instance. we have to wait for it. remember that THERE MAY BE SOME DELAY IN HOUSE OF GOD BUT THERE'S CERTAINLY NOT ANY REJECTION. and i suggest that death is part of our lives. the ultimate truth of life. one day everybody have to die. it's the law of God I mean just imagine as to a more practical imagination that if nobody would ever die than this world would eventually become a crowded place full of people not just humans but other species as well. so ironically, in a way of speaking, death is also needed in society to keep the balance of the world in a correct order.

Answer 3

The "finite godism" theory is based on a flawed premise: That God wants to control all our lives and ensure that they are happy and free of pain and/or trials. This is antithetical to the gospel message. Our purpose in this life is to face trials. Only by doing that can we grow, learn, and progress as God wants us to. What Rabbi Harold Kushner taught is that God does not want us to have free agency or any struggles in our lives, but He simply can't prevent them from occurring. That is nonsense and doesn't match up to anything that God has taught us about the purpose of this life.

For more details on God's plan, you could reference www.lds.org . Hope that helps.

Answer 4

In the beginning God completely sustained His creation without blemish. That’s why it was perfect. He held every atom together in a perfect state. He kept the planets in their orbits. He kept animals from tripping and breaking their necks. He did not allow people to suffer and die.
Deuteronomy 8:4 gives us a little glimpse of how things might have been in the original creation. “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” God is omnipotent and perfectly capable of sustaining and protecting his creation.
When Adam sinned, however, the Lord cursed the universe. In essence there was a change and along with that change God seemingly took away a little bit of his sustaining power and allowed things like suffering and death into His creation. Now He permits bad things to happen—and this is a reminder that sin has consequences and that the world needs a Savior. Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
God took pleasure in all of His creation ("http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=revelation+4:11&version=NKJV"), but He loved people most of all. He allowed the created universe to deteriorate so we would see the consequences of our sin. If we did not see the consequences of our sin, we would never see that we need salvation from our sin, and we would never accept His offer of mercy for our sin. Most people easily recognize that there is a problem in the world. This can be used to show them that there is one who has overcome this problem of death and suffering—Jesus Christ.

Answer 5

I don't agree that God wants the righteous to live "happy" lives. The only happiness one truly has is in his/her relationship with God. The rain falls on the good as well as the evil. And unfortunately death and destruction happens to both the righteous and the wicked. You have to put your trust in God in that no matter what happens, He will be there for you. If you read the book of Job, you can clearly see that Job was a righteous man, but God allowed Satan to destroy his wealth, family, and health. God allowed it to happen. You and me can never figure out the Sovereignty of God. We just have to trust God in this life and not lose faith. Jesus says that "in this life you WILL face trials and tribulations, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world." Everybody is going to suffer in this fallen world and no one gets out of here alive.

Jesus says "you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven." - John 3:3.

Answer 6

When God gave us free will, it was because He chose not to controll everything. I dont belive He is "finite" I believe He could have created a world where only good exists, but that wasnt what He wanted, so, for Him to have what He wants, which is people choosing Him on their own, He chose to not put His hands in everything.

Answer 7

Omnipotence cannot coherently be understood as absolutely unlimited power. That view is internally self-contradictory and, given the fact that evil and suffering are real, not reconcilable with God's omnibenevolence or loving kindness

God has all power to accomplish his purposes. If God took away all trials, hardships, loss, sorrow, consequences, etc. then we would hardly learn anything and certainly be limited in our growth. If God, being all knowing, knew you could go to college and graduate, couldn't he just give you the diploma and be done with it? Do you actually have to go to school, learn, study, pass (and sometimes fail) in order to learn and in order to appreciate it?

Answer 8

i just bought that book for one of my classes actually. hopefully its good. i haven't started it yet.

actually, though, the rabbi seems to have forgotten the simple line from isaiah 45:

"I am the Lord and there is none else, I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil; I am the Lord, who makes all these."

in short, G-d is the source of both good and evil.

Answer 9

Evil doesn't exist. It never did. It has no more existence than that of darkness.

Darkness is simply the lack of the presence of light.

Evil is the lack of the light of God.

There are those who think they can exist on the edge of the light, not quite in the darkness, but not quite in the light.

Answer 10

It really only proves that Kushner is willing to change his understanding of God in the face of difficult pain.

Better book, same tragedy: Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff (who teaches philosphical theology at Yale).