On the nature of God

[kengr]

I ran into the old chestnut about "Can God create a rock to big for Him to move?"

The standard answer is that it's a nonsense question.

But then it occurred to me that if God can set rules for the universe, maybe he can set rules that he has to follow. In that case, if he created a rock with the intent that he not be able to move it, then it would indeed be immovable, because he'd made that a new rule.

Different, but plausible, yes?

Then it hit me. God created man with free will. And if the above idea is true, he's stuck with us having free will.

That explains a *lot* of things about the world that are otherwise hard to square with am "omnipotent" deity. Most of what theologians refer to as "The Problem of Evil" to name but one.

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Yes, we have free will. And because of it, we make our own evil. The rest of creation has a free will too, to a point. Hence God can't do anything about natural disasters.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

A deeply Christian friend, who despite that was quite wise said that god left us with instructions to live well, and went fishing.

The verse he was fondest of in that context was:

Matthew 18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.


I was always surprised how few "Christians" seemed to get his point.

[seawasp]

My view has always been that if God exists, It had omniscience in the sense of knowing all facts, and omnipotence, in the sense that It was in the beginning able to do anything at all, but that your basic view is correct -- if It set rules, It had to follow the rules (not "had to" as in "was physically incapable of not following", but "Its self-respect was bound up in following those rules".

The combination meant It made human beings with free will, and then really, honestly couldn't understand why they DIDN'T do everything right, and tried sledgehammer approaches until finally coming to the conclusion that knowing the *facts* had to be, somehow, different from having the EXPERIENCE... which is why It became Jesus, lived a human life, and then went "Oh. THAT's what's going on."

Knowing all the facts is no substitute for having an experience.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

If God doesn't want that rock to move, it's *not* going to move. :-)

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Apparently He can't make kilogram electrons - at least until the next software upgrade.