If an all-powerful, all-knowing being created another, what if he gave him all knowledge but the knowledge of his (the original's) existence? Rather, how can God or a god know this is not the case? Again, God can do anything, so could he not create a copy of himself whose only difference is that He thinks he is alone? Could there be an infinitely long string of Gods that each believes He is the original?
2007-05-09 19:19:43 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Your question is essentially about the issues concerning God's nature and what is meant by the quality of God's omnipotence. According to classical Christian theology God is one, and there is no other God, but God. God, if he is God, cannot be predicated or positioned by any other reality. Further, God's omnipotence is not understood, at least in terms of classical Christian theology, as meaning "God can do whatever he wants" but as meaning that God requires no other being, other than himself, to be who he is. This is one of the qualitative differences between God and a creature. It does not mean that God can will anything, as God is limited in what he can will by his essential nature. Therefore, for example, God cannot will to create another being equal to or greater than himself, and he cannot make himself evil. The idea that God "can do anything" is called voluntarism. This is a theological movement that opposed God's will to God's nature in an attempt to preserve any threats to God's sovereignty. Unfortunately, it leads to the types of issues you address in your question and makes God appear capricious and untrustworthy. Highly Recommended Reading: Mortimer Adler "How to Think about God."
2007-05-10 05:03:48 · answer #1 · answered by Timaeus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Alright, I think I understand the question which I have pondered at some point - circular logic I think they call it: If God created all the universe, who created God? Yes I think God is the original. I don't think there is another. God (not any particular religion here but quoting from the Bible) is the alpha and the omega (the beginning and the end). There is no other. Now I'm the first one to question everything but I think I'm comfortable with that stance. Would it be strange to think otherwise, would I be uncomfortable? Yes. I mean it's already so complex and mysterious to me that we're here in the first place. In the past when I was younger I would think about how far space stretches, how big it was - the enormous size of the idea just confused the heck out of me and I gave in to accepting as is without trying to wrap my head around it.
I think a lot of people get so wrapped up in their daily lives and what's going on in the world that they don't spend much time thinking about the why and how questions. Unfortunate because these are great questions.
2007-05-10 03:23:19 · answer #2 · answered by lawofconstantcomposition 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Philosophically, the idea of an omnipotent anything brings with it all sorts of unresolvable paradoxes. Can an omnipotent God create a God more powerful than itself? Can it create something too heavy for it to lift? Can it make itself powerless, and so on?
It's not unlike the statement, "Everything I say is a lie." It's actually a way of playing with the limitations of concepts and language.
2007-05-10 03:01:57 · answer #3 · answered by philmeta11 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No.
One God. He always was & always will be. There wasn't another one. Omniscient means he knows everything. So he would know if he had a creator. You can't create something that always existed. He had no beginning.
It's hard for us to understand the concept of infinity because we live in a physical world of beginnings & endings. God is a being not a human. When our bodies die our souls will live forever. Maybe then we'll understand. But for now, it just makes our brains hurt trying to grasp how something was just always there. The creator wasn't created.
2007-05-10 02:48:54 · answer #4 · answered by amp 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
God created us through Him-therefore, we are smaller copies of Himself. It doesn't matter what god you believe in, because they are just different names of the same God. He created heaven and Earth and everything that dwells in it.
2007-05-10 02:58:25 · answer #5 · answered by poeticjustice 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can theorize anything. The trick is having it make sense in the world in which we live .
2007-05-10 03:23:33 · answer #6 · answered by dogpatch USA 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋