I’ve
written before about how the omni-traits of the Christian God make him logically impossible. We've got the common paradox asking whether God could create a stone so heavy even he couldn’t lift it. Then we've got paradoxes that show God is in some ways less capable then us puny humans. For example, I can make a sandwich so big that I couldn’t eat it, which God shouldn’t be able to do without exposing a limitation. I can also
commit suicide, which is off the table for any eternal being.
Now, beyond the paradoxical, I thought of another way Jehovah can’t be omnipotent--because he either
needs or
wants glorification. A common theme of the bible and therefore Christianity is the call for humanity to worship the Almighty and give all glory God. This is obviously very important to the big guy. My question is: can a being who needs or wants for anything be omnipotent? I’d be interested in my readers thoughts on this.
If he has such a deep-seated emotional need, a need so burning that he inflicts horrific punishments on humans who leave it unmet, then he is not omnipotent or complete-in-himself.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, why does the Biblical God have this burning emotional need? Did his divine parents not give him enough affection? Is his ego bruised after a bad breakup with his divine girlfriend? Emotional insecurity is a strange quality for a supposedly omnipotent being to have.
God needs therapy. Possibly meds.
DeleteThat's an interesting question, Grundy. I would challenge that the answer to your question is yes. I think in your question is the assumption that if you have the power to do something, you will always choose to do it, but I don't know if that is the case. I'll go to a real world example:
ReplyDeleteIn our lives, none of us are omnipotent, but we do have a degree of power, and that power is quite often represented by money. (This obviously isn't a direct analog, given that God would have infinite power, while we have limited money, but I think I can still make a point.) There are things which are within our power to buy, and that are attractive to us to the point of some desire to own them, and yet we may choose not to buy them. Their could be any number of reasons why we chose not to buy them, but within the realm of possible answers is that we do not feel that we would appreciate them much after we had bought them, after the initial thrill had worn off.
Turning to the parallel in Christianity, and to a tired argument of apologists, if God simply made someone who gave Him praise and glorification without any kind of choice to do so, that glorification would seem a bit hollow. However, if God can persuade people to genuinely choose to glorify Him, then that choice generated from "free will" is much more meaningful and enduring.
Of course, as Hausdorff has highlighted recently in his blog, the choice isn't made by "free will," and God is getting continual, automatic praise as opposed to genuine compliments, so Scripture defeats what could otherwise be a halfway decent argument on the apologists' behalf.
Interesting. Anytime I think about buying something, the only deterrent is opportunity cost. If the time it took to purchase it and the money was of no consequence, I can't imagine not having something I wanted...but maybe that's just me.
DeleteThis makes me think of the stereotypical bad girlfriend who wants flowers, but doesn't want to tell you to get her flowers. It means more if her stereotypically clueless boyfriend just decides to get flowers on his own, of course that will never happen because he has no idea there is an issue at all. She has the power to get those flowers, but it will never happen on her unrealistic perfect terms. Of course, she could meet him half way and say something like "I would like you to surprise me with flowers now and then, but I'm not going to tell you when because the surprise is part of the fun".
ReplyDeleteHow about the omnipotent God? He has the power to just snap his fingers make us all worship him, but if he does it is as hollow as the girlfriend calling her boyfriend and saying "buy me flowers today and bring them over", she got her flowers, but it really wasn't what she wanted. Perhaps God needs to meet us halfway, and you know, prove that he exists. Then maybe some of us would worship him. Although he would have to prove that he was worthy of worship, and if I've learned anything reading the atheist blog-o-sphere, it would be a lot of work to convince many of us, and he would have to spend a lot of time not being a dick, which based on the bible is very hard for God. He should probably just take a nap instead.
The problem here is more omniscience. One can't surprise God with flowers or worship.
Deletethat's true, but in the same way that the girlfriend can want flowers with extra conditions (it being a surprise), God can want worship with extra conditions (it not being forced). This of course assumes we actually have free will. If everything is determined ahead of time he basically forced us in the way he set things up at the beginning.
DeletePer your reply to Ahab up above...I think it is humanity who needs therapy and perhaps a few meds, more so than God. All those who believe that any sensible Divine Creator would expect us to worship all those paradoxes about how judgmental, wrathful, and downright evil, "he" is in the Bible, need to stop believing what they are told by those who want to make a profit off a flock who follows the leader blindly out of fear without using any reasonable logic of their own.
ReplyDeleteI don't think God has any emotional troubles a couple of good beers couldn't fix up. I know I don't.
ReplyDeleteI will note that a lot of the people who are in charge at any given moment seem to require a lot of attention. Perhaps when one is imagining a god, one imagines his neediness is even greater.