2007-02-02 08:14:07 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes, but more importantly, he exists outside our definition of reality.
2007-02-02 08:16:36 · answer #1 · answered by WWTSD? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Logic gets weird when you deal with absolutes. By definition, God is omniscient. If God knows everything-- well, you know that bruhaha about free will vs determinism. But even beyond that, God knows everyone's fears, desires and other motivations behind everything we say and do. No motive is purely "good" or "evil" because we are ignorant of the circumstances under which we're acting, of the motivations or our friends and enemies, and of the true consequences of our acts. God could straighten us out but that would affect other people's acts, leading to more fixing and eventually the whole exercise would be pointless. So the "best", "wisest", most "loving" and most "perfect" divine act would probably be to do nothing. (Hmm. Jesus said: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.")
The argument for omnipotence has similar problems. By saying God has all the power in the universe, are we saying God is capable of exercising potential power against any other force in the universe or are we saying that God IS all the power in the universe? One view makes any act of God a violation of the laws of physics. The other makes God the enforcer of the laws that make the universe comprehensible, incapable of violating them without violating his own nature. So God is either paralyzed or his own devil.
God's absolute aspects affect everything we can understand about God. By being perfectly powerful, God is invulnerable, unsubject to the biochemical needs of mortals, unstarvable, unasphyxiable, unbribable, unthreatenable, uncajolable. So how does God evaluate the change that occurs in our world? Every thing that happens in the universe, incuding conscious acts, is interlinked with every other happening and can't be isolated as a morally isolable event. Any event that is prevented, stopped or altered would affect the other events. How can anything be categorically "good" or "bad"?
If God is capable of caring about, or even discerning, individual creatures, God would likely be very just, simply for the sake of order, even though the stakes would be extremely small to God. It makes it hard to attribute love to such a being. Love is a chaotic element that transcends boundaries of order and proportionality, creating relationships with no basis in logic or efficiency. Yet we understand that God insists on it. Love is important. But if you think about it, it has to be a very different experince to God than it is for us.
To God, concepts such as "good", "love", "wisdom" and "perfection" are nonsensical, mere adaptations to the conflicts and uncertainties of the world of time and space. God isn't any of these qualities, God simply IS. (I think it says that somewhere in the Bible.) We can personify God and ascribe human attributes to God, and maybe that is even how it works for us, but it's all a necessary illusion, an interface, because we could not comprehend the reality of such a being.
2007-02-02 17:02:39 · answer #2 · answered by skepsis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course. Those definitions are limited in scope due to the finite human mind. A perfect God is by definition infinite and therefore beyond the scope of the human mind.
2007-02-02 16:17:39 · answer #3 · answered by Open Heart Searchery 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gods ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts- as it says in Isaiah. But God is all good- infact many cannot comprehend the righteousness of God- and there are many things we will never know until we meet Him face to face, but what we do know, is that He is good, and merciful and Just- Just like our justice system has a system, so does God with sin. And God does know all- and He sees all. But God is LOVING, and His love is shown SO CLEARLY in what He has done on the cross. Why do so many skip over the most important thing in life? Salvation through Jesus Christ!
2007-02-02 16:20:13 · answer #4 · answered by Mandolyn Monkey Munch 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a beginning into the understanding of God. There is so much more He will reveal if you would only ask Him. He is not a mystery to those who love and serve Him.
2007-02-02 16:23:26 · answer #5 · answered by rezany 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Considering that our perception of morality and behavior is seriously flawed by sin, then we cannot really know what these attributes of God are truly like, and so yes He has to exist beyond our understanding of these.
2007-02-02 16:21:25 · answer #6 · answered by Sentinel 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our finite minds can't fathom the infinite God and his powers. We believe but won't fully understand until we are face to face. (That's a rough translation of Paul's speech about looking in a mirror dimly then...)
2007-02-02 16:18:21 · answer #7 · answered by gigglings 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you mean the creator of the universe, then yes. This being is neither male or female, or is both. And exsists beyond good and evil.
2007-02-02 16:26:39 · answer #8 · answered by jennette h 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. God is more complex than our definitions.
2007-02-02 16:17:20 · answer #9 · answered by ngel_lite 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Simply because it is impossible for mankind to describe God perfectly.
2007-02-02 16:32:31 · answer #10 · answered by mecasa 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋