If God is omnipotent?

Question

Can he make a world where there is no evil/sin but there is freewill?

P.S. saying that God, can't suggest that he's un-omnipotent...just like me

but saying he could, questions his omnibenevolenve

Answer 1

Super question.... there is a lot of thinking behind it!!

If God is omnipotent, he can not be benevolent because good and evil make no difference to the all-powerful.... there would be no meaning in God preferring one over the other..... accordingly no meaning either in God bestowing any benefit to anyone. Conceptually, omnipotence leads to absolute neutrality and no need ever to exercise any power. It is this neutrality that allows us freewill.... it makes no difference to the Almighty how anyone uses the freewill.... our use of freewill makes a difference to us and us alone.

Answer 2

If he was why would there be evil in the world. Apparently he gives us free will, which on the evidence of history is like giving a child a loaded gun, or a nuclear weapon. The free will argument is generally used to excuse the supreme deity from being responsible for anything after the creation of the universe. Most humans, since we became self aware as a species, have led lives of suffering and privation. This process has been going on for millenia, the only end in sight is the possibility of our mutual self destruction via war or environmental catastrophe.
It is this very suffering and privation that may be the motive force behind the concept of a supreme being, for we have to believe in something to make our lives bearable.
The deist position is that God set the universe in motion and now no longer takes part in the proceedings. So much for the power of prayer.
Alternatively, you could take the position that he did create a world that you describe - evil and sin are human concepts, not Godly ones.
If you see a lion kill and eat a zebra, you do not condemn the lion for being a murderer, after all she is only doing what she needs to survive and prosper. Humans commonly do a similar thing, but when it is done by a human we ascribe relative values to the act. If it is another human who was the victim, then it is o.k. if the right person. If it is a cow, then it is food. If it is many people, mass murder or genocide.
It is all down to the elevated value that is placed on human lives, and even then it is relativistic. If you are muslim and a bunch of jews or christians are killed then it is a good day.
Hitler was the cause of millions of deaths, Stalin possibly more.
We are all too willing to use our free will to suit our own ends and God then must be the cause of this and ultimately responsible for the evil. For if you knowingly allow the prosecution of evil then you are party to it.
Again - evil may well be only a human concept.
Maybe as beings we need a new philosophy - one that makes us accountable for our lives and still enables to spend our short existences in mutual assistance and appreciation.

Answer 3

There's a rumor that a certain science student argued with his professor cause the professor said you cannot have good without having evil. The student asked the professor what heat was. the professor replied, of course, that heat is simply the inherent kiinetic energy of all particles in a piece of matter. The student then asked what cold was. The professor sighed and said in a patronizing way that there is no such thing as cold, there is simply an absennce of heat energy in the object. You either have heat energy or you don't by having taken all of the energy out of the object or system in question--like what a refrigerator does. The student then asked what light was. The professor asked how the student had made it to university level physics. The student asked the professor to humor him and please answer the question. The professor stated light was electromagnetic radiation with "visible light" being a small set of frequencies in the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Then [of course] the student asked what is dark? The professor said simply the absence of light or radiation and then asked the student what was the point of all the questions.
The student then replied, that if you have heat and its absence is "cold" and you have light and its absence is "dark", then you can have good and its absence in a person can simply be labelled "evil".
So, the maker/creator made good and some people seem to want goodness to be absent from their life and actions. It's their choice.
On a side note: there cannot however be "freewill" with an omnipotent being. If the creator knows all that was or will be, then the list of judgement already has the names of those who make to "heaven" and those to go to "hell". That list already exists and cannot be changed, so how do we get to choose anything that puts our name on that list in either column. The list, to the maker's omnipotent perspecetive, is already set no matter what we do.

Answer 4

Depends on whether "free will" can actually exist. As far as I know, if we were to rewind the universe a billion years, and let it play out the exact time we rewinded it, we'd be in the exact same place we are now. So basically no matter what these "choices" we make are happen to be, they were going to happen no matter what. That isn't really "free" will. True "free will" would be something that would make the universe different if we rewinded it however far back it took for a change in the present--the Beginning is all I can think of. "Choice" in my eyes is just the best emulation of free will that can be done in our universe.

As for "God" creating a new universe with "free will" (assuming it can exist) but not evil, I don't think so, because the idea of "good" is entirely based on perspective. If it was socially accepted to kill people, serial murderers would be hailed as leaders. When something is a matter of perspective, it is to see a true thing through one of multiple filters. Those "multiple filters" can't be much else than "good" and "evil" in this case. Without evil, there isn't a matter of perspective, and thusly no good. The issue would just be the issue through other, unrelated perspective-filters. There wouldn't be a 'good' or 'bad' about it.

Answer 5

Saying God is not omnipotent if he can't create a world with both free will and no evil is like saying he is not omnipotent if he can't create a square circle. Omnipotence does not include the ability to defy logic and create two things which are completely incompatible in the same place at the same time. Giving someone a real choice, and then forcing them to always choose one way is not possible

Answer 6

without evil there can be no good therefore there can be no choices that require free will. freewill helps a person decide between two+ opposing issues (all of which might be varying shades of good and evil). if you were to examine the garden of eden you can say that before the apple adam and eve did not need free will. they lived in a utopian society where they did as they felt because all options were "good." however, as soon as evil was presented in the form of the apple they were forced to exersize their freewill. so in my opinion, there can be no freewill without evil because there would be no choices to make. Instead we would just go through life living rather like animals with no conception of right and wrong, good and evil (which are socially constructed themes anyway). Therefore, we would also no have no freewill because there would be no moral issues to decide upon.

Answer 7

this world is an examination hall! where we are given freewill and intelligence to judge right from wrong and choose our destiny.if god wanted this world to be a happy and sin free place
he would not have created humans but only angels would live on this earth.it is the freewill and our faith and intelligence that makes us so superior over all the other creatures of god.this phase is necessary for us human beings to experience our powers and realize and uncover the truth about reality ourselves.

Answer 8

Well, firstly, if there's free will there's evil, isn't that how religious people justify bad things being allowed to happen by a "loving" god?

The fact that something like this has to be explained by some convoluted logic demonstrates that man created god, but then had trouble fitting this myth into reality.

Answer 9

This world is as freewill as God's, and is inherited by man. However, freewill could incorporate evil/sin because evil/sin is also a freewill.

Answer 10

It's a good thing if you can ask God himself, but I doubt that He will give you a sure answer, so you come seeking for an answer from fellow answerer here and you find there's know sure answer here either, so you might as well scratch your head and roll your eyes.....ha ha ha. Sorry, mate....life ain't fun without a joke now and then. Well, come to think of it I could be right after all