If so don`t you find these attributes contradictory? If God is omniscient and he knows everything - then he knows everything that he is going to do. He knows everything that he did. There is no "State of Uncertainity." If knows everything that he is going to do then how can he have "Free will" to choose? A God that knows everything cannot be omnipotent because he already knows what he is going to do. That God would be deterministic a slave to his own nature. If he knows everything and he is eternal then he would take him an eternity to remember everything that he knows. It`s a nonsensical propostion - it`s meaningless. Imagine something that is all powerful. Power is a capacity of force. Some are greater than others. Saying that God is all powerful implies that he has no compacity of force hence, he`s powerless. Omnisicence, omnipotence, omnibenelovence are attributes that sound "cute" but mean absolutely nothing
2007-11-02 12:03:24 · 9 answers · asked by Future 5 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
hello you have a valid argument but the contradiction stems from the way you've looked at these attributes. God is (if you believe there is a God) omniscient and omnipotent.. but its not to himself that he is so. God is omniscient to relation to humans. God is omnipotent in relation to humans.
As has been mentioned these are concepts that humans have created to try make sense of what we dont understand - the same can be said on the Being of God. But God cannot be subject to these concepts humans have attributed Him to as God is great than that. I can recall one quote from the Bible - but my Bible quoting is rusty, it says something like "your ways are worldly, mine are heavenly" .. I just mentioned this to make the point that what humans make of the concept of God and indeed anything else in this world, it may be different to what God makes of things.
I find it interesting that you mentioned "free will" .. free will is something he's given to humans - and of course, even then God knows what humans will choose. I would say that God is not subject to free will, as to be subject to it you have to be governed by some other force - which in the concept of God there is no other.
Anyway, it is an interesting point you have made, along with many others in the past and present who try to make sense of the concept or Being of God, but I think in the end of it all theologists or not we are all limited in our success as to have faith is to mean to believe in the divine mysteries ... and the Christian/Catholic God has many.
just my 2 cents, hope this helps!
2007-11-02 13:11:22 · answer #1 · answered by Ariean 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
First off, you must tackle the true meaning of each attribute separately before you can tie them together. You stated ..."Power is a capacity of force. Some are greater than others. Saying that God is all powerful implies that he has no capacity of force hence, he`s powerless." I'm really not sure if I grasp what you are saying here. If I am understanding this particular theory of yours correctly, then you are basically saying that if God is all powerful, then no power can be added to nor taken away from Him, is that pretty much correct? So how do you come to the conclusion to say He's powerless by this statement of yours I quoted? This question cannot be answered without it raising only more questions that would need more answers, so it would definitely take much time to do so, although I would love for the 2 of us to further discuss this! One thing you did say about God is that He is "a slave to his own nature." You are actually correct, though "slave" may not be the best word, more like BOUND I would say. First off, you have to look at ALL Gods attributes and one you didn't mention is Holiness which means He is separate from sin, and is not capable of sinning. God is Holy, and all His attributes are bound together by and with holiness. God has, is, and will always use His attributes according to holiness. I will go for now and ponder what you have said, but will get back to you on this subject. Thanks for such a challenging question. Peace
2007-11-02 20:18:39 · answer #2 · answered by dooder 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God is not omniscient -- he is a little less. The free will he has given us means and is shown by scriptures to mean that God doesn't know what everybody's hearts make them do.
He tests his servants hearts so as to determine if they are going to become willful sinners and practice sin. This implies non-omniscience.
He is the Almighty. Your argument in regard to that is meaningless, and you are talking about things in this regard that you have no idea about.
Just as God gave us the fine tuned ability to match power extended and calculated when we pick up known objects -- God himself uses no more power than is necessary to complete an action.
He is not like a piece of ammunition that always expends the maximum energy available to it.
The fact that God has free will to choose is obvious from his conversation with Abraham about Sodom & Gomorrah. There Abraham questioned God.
Saying but what if there are 50 righteous in these cities, then will you destroy them -- and God answered, if there are that many, I will not destroy them. Clearly God is permitting Abraham to advocate for the Sodomites.
This went on until Abraham reached the number 10. And God kept on agreeing. Abraham himself did not go below ten -- because he understood that God would have stopped him since Lot and his family were four.
There had to be at least ten righteous there. This conversation shows that God can interact in a logical free will action manner that resembles our own. And why shouldn't he be able to, we are made in his image.
Thus if we have this ability, God has it more so. Your logic machine needs to study the Bible and get off its high horse of self worth and being able to figure God out from this babble you spew forth.
2007-11-03 10:05:28 · answer #3 · answered by Fuzzy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quite nice argument...
From my point of view, the terms 'omnipotent', 'omniscient', 'free will', 'power' etc. are just concept made by human and argues by human. Even the term 'God' itself should be questioned, whether it is God who create human or it is human who create their God?
It just the way people describe their concept of God using words so arguing about it won't bring us anywhere (at least that's how I see it), however, it does is a nice topic to train our brain a bit
Err... I think I'm not answering the question at all, do I?
By the way, regarding this concept, I have one question:
Does God able to create a stone (or anything) that even God cannot lift?
2007-11-02 19:32:51 · answer #4 · answered by sakura_ch4n 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The answer to your question is "Yes".
As to the rest, that big paragraph, "Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord thy God".
2007-11-02 19:25:14 · answer #5 · answered by Nothingusefullearnedinschool 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
He's a figment of somebody's imagination, no more.
2007-11-02 19:14:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Here is What He Is:
"I am that I am, tell them I am hath sent thee"
2007-11-02 19:43:41 · answer #7 · answered by ? 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
He's both.
2007-11-02 19:10:25 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
how about UNEXISTING ???
lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
2007-11-02 19:45:48 · answer #9 · answered by nicknamedforprivatereasons 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋