Alex’s Heresies – embracing a physical reality

Christians, Muslims, and Jews – the traditional ones – quite happily refer to their God as all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good without much reflection. And this seems natural and necessary for something deserving of unreserved devotion. These qualities of God are treated as perfection without peer.

So what does all-powerful mean especially in light of all-good? Do the concepts even make sense? Though believers in the pews seem unperturbed about these ideas, it has been the focus of intellectual activity by philosophers and theologians for hundreds of years. One famous paradox is God’s ability to create a rock so heavy that even God cannot lift it. The general consensus amongst theologians seems to be ‘no’. So that is the first limitation of all-powerful, only things logically possible.

How about 2+2 equals 4? Again the feeling seems to be that God cannot make 2+3 equals 4. Add that to the list of cannot do’s. This is one of many logical impossibilities that God cannot do. A person being both 25 and 40 years old at the same time is another.

How about past events? World War started in 1939. Can an event that has already happed be changed by an all-powerful being? Again the consensus is no. It seems that changing past events is beyond even something all-powerful.

Can an all-powerful God make a person freely choose an action? ‘Make’ and ‘freely-chosen’ seem necessarily contradictory. So that needs to be added to the list of restrictions.

So all-powerful seems to mean doing anything except

• That is necessarily false (2+3=4)

• Logically impossible (‘unliftable’ rock)

• Completed in the past (WW2 started 1939)

• Enforce ‘freely-chosen’ actions by people.

Finally, can an all-good, all-powerful God who commit evil? It seems not. It is necessarily impossible for an all-good God to commit evil even though all-powerful. We have the interesting situation that people are able to do something at God cannot do – commit evil. So in that limited sense we are more powerful than even the all-powerful God of the Christians, Muslims and Jews.

So what are God’s limitations? God cannot do the following:

• That is necessarily false (2+3=4)

• Logically impossible (‘unliftable’ rock)

• Completed in the past (WW2 started 1939)

• Force ‘freely-chosen’ actions by people.

• Commit evil even though we can! (assuming all-good)

So, when do we reach a point that the religious see this God does not warrant unreserved devotion?

Alex McCullie