Why does omniscience and omnipotence give rise to omnibenevolence?

Question

If it is granted that God is omniscient and omnipotent, why is it logically necessary that God is also omnibenevolent?

The crux of the question concerns the logic of the inference. It isn't necessary to consider the existence of God.

Given the definitions of omniscience and omnipotence, why does the conjunct of the two definitions imply omnibenevolence as well? Or to put it another way, if the conjunct of omniscience and omnipotence is assumed to be true, why is it difficult to deny the truth of omnibenevolence?

Answer 1

There are philosophical perspectives that may suggest an answer, though none of the arguments are without some criticism.

For example, there's always the idea that something cannot come from nothing... a very old one dating back to the pre-Socratics. If something cannot come from nothing, and good is a thing, then it must have come from somewhere. And since most creation stories involve a time where there is a god or gods but no universe, the only place it could have come from is that divine entity.

So by this reasoning, we might believe that an omnipotent god has at least SOME good. How we get from there to ALL good come from an idea developed by Plato and heavily leaned on by Thomas Aquinas - that of 'self-diffusiveness of good'.

It is thought to be a good thing to want to be MORE good, and a bad thing to be indifferent to improvement. From that, we might conclude that any being with some goodness will want more, not only for itself but for everything around it.

Since we posited that our good is omnipotent, and we have figured out that it is good, we can only conclude that its desire to be MORE good would have no obstacle. By being omnipotent and omniscient, it can't be just a LITTLE good... if all our arguments hold it can only be in three states: all-good, completely indifferent, or all-evil.

And since we argued earlier that our creator diety must be at least a little good, it must also be all good.

All of which is just ONE argument for omnibenevolence. There are also those who have suggested that good is intrinsically more powerful than non-good, so omnipotence necessarily does imply omnibenevolence. If I'm not mistaken, Descartes' argument for the existance of such an entity would necessitate omnibenevolence because it was part of his 'picture' as well.

All arguments, if not necessarily great ones. Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Well if God were truly omnibenevolent, wouldn't he do something about all of the Sh*t going on that his omniscience is aware of and his omnipotence can change?

Answer 3

Omnibenevolence is not necessary to follow from the conjunction of those two. Goodness is not determined by knowledge nor by power nor by the joining of those two, hence the term "powerful evil genius".

If God is all knowing and all powerful, but is not good, then we are all screwed. If he is good, then we are foolish to deny him. Actually, either way we are foolish to deny him.

Answer 4

If you've got questions about God, why are you asking humans.
Do you think we have all the friggin answers?
Go to the source---ask God.
But if you're just trying to be an intellectual wise-guy, and don't really care about the truth. Then go to a friggin atheist college professor to find someone to be intellectual with.

Sorry if I seem to be angry. It's just that I keep running into people who ask questions that they don't really want to know the answers to. And I keep running into people who consider themselves 'enlightened' when all they really want is to bash my beliefs and culture.

If you are really sincere in your wish to find answers, there are organized religions that have spent thousands of years in unwavering contemplation of such questions. You don't have to look for a 'new' answer. All the questions have been asked a long time ago and the answers--to the best of human ability--have been found.

Answer 5

If God used his all power and all knowledge selfishly, He likely would destroy all things. However, since God created all things (including you and me), He also has love for His creations.

Think about it ... What do you have the power to create? For example, you can build a house. If you do it perfectly, with everything just the way you like it, then you have love for that creation -- in this case, the house --- right? You would not destroy it, but nurture it and care for it. You would have intimate detailed knowledge of how that is built, and how to maintain and support it.
Another power we have as humans is to participate with God in creating life -- procreation. Granted that our off-spring are not perfect, most parents (and especially the best of parents) have tremendous love for their children. If we, being imperfect beings, can have love for our creations, and especially our off-spring, then how much more would God love us, He being perfect and omniscient?!

Answer 6

Because it'd be damned difficult to shape a religion around a 'God' who just quixotically fµcks with people to amuse herself ☺

Doug

Answer 7

It isn't. You can be all-knowing and all-powerful but a real prick with no sympathy.

Answer 8

he created the world, so he has to be benevolent.