Oscar,
Thank you for your good comments and questions in our discussion about the existence of God and "Can God make a rock so big He cannot lift it?" I will attempt to respond to your comments in turn and will conclude with one question for you. First, you replied:
“
Omnipotent indeed means infinite power, that is, being able to do anything. So (according to what you say) either the bible overly vague (defective) in it's wording (read your dictionary) or the omnipotent idea of God is plain nonsense.”
I agree with you in that Omnipotence means “all powerful” however, this is not an abstract concept. Omnipotence is connected to the person of God; therefore, God is all-powerful and able to do whatever He wills. To ask the question if God can make rocks so large that He cannot lift it does not ask if making such a rock is God’s will. What He did make was the Universe and all things in it and He upholds all things by the word of His power—why ask something so small about rocks if He created all things in both macro and microcosmos?
Consider further: God can do everything that is in harmony with His perfections. Knowing this, there are some things that God cannot do because they are contrary to His nature as God. For example: God cannot look favorably on sin, God cannot lie, God cannot tempt or be tempted. In the same way God cannot do things absurd, self-contradictory, like making square circles. These acts are not acts of power, so there is no limitation to God’s omnipotence.
The possession of omnipotence does not demand an exercise of power. God does what He wills to do, and God does not necessarily will to do anything, especially on a whim. God has power over His power. That’s omnipotence.
To demand that God that has no power over His power is to create a god that does not exist, and that may be part of your misunderstanding.
You also wrote: “
If an omnipotent god which is also absolutely good exists, why is there so much pain and suffering (i.e. evil) in the world? Any being which is all-good and all-powerfil [sic] would naturally erradicate [sic] all conditions under which it would be possible for evil to exist.”
Again, good questions. Perhaps another way to put it would be (if I may), “Since an omnipotent God which is also absolutely good exists, why is there so much pain and suffering (i.e. evil) in the world?”
I will ask in response: “What makes you think the ability to take away evil from the world has anything to do with God's strength?”
Let's pretend that you claim to be the strongest person in the world. More than that, you are the strongest person in the universe. You can pick up an entire building. You are so strong that you can pick up an entire city. You are so strong you can pick up an entire country. In fact, if you had a place to stand, you could lift the entire planet, even the solar system. You have so much strength, you can do anything that strength allows you to do. This is your boast to me, Ok?
Now, let’s test your strength by using one of your own arguments: make a square circle.
You can’t do it because square circles have nothing to do with strength. Neither does the existence of evil nor the eradication of it have anything to do with strength.
You tried to dismiss this argument with, “
Don't give me the free-will tale because if god is all-knowing that would mean that he would already know the whole future, which would mean our destiny exist and is fixated, and not the product of our own inventive.”
Every thinking person must deal with the problem of evil and I am happy to think this through with you because, face it, nobody likes pain, right? But consider this: my youngest son is losing his baby teeth, but one tooth will not come out. It is just sticking out there and his adult tooth is coming in behind it. The baby tooth is not loose, so he will have to go to the dentist and have it pulled so the adult tooth can come in. Can you see where this is going? Momentary pain can be necessary for long-term relief.
For the atheist, pain and suffering and evil are not really problems, but necessary for life, which makes pain and suffering and evil a great blessing—life could not be without chaos: life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University's Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity. Bottom line: pain, suffering and evil are necessary to promote life.
Did you know that Jesus Himself pointed out that suffering and pain and evil do not all find their sources in man’s free will? Read the Bible and find Jesus making a distinction between moral evil and natural evil.
In Luke 13, the murder of the Galileans is clearly moral evil, a premeditated crime--just like the terrorist acts in New York and Washington. In John 9, a man is blind from birth, and Jesus tells the Twelve that this blindness cannot be traced back to this man's sin, or that of his parents. Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.
People all over the world are demanding an answer to the question of evil. It comes only to those who claim that God is mighty and that God is good. How could a good God allow these things to happen? How can a God of love allow killers to kill, terrorists to terrorize, and the wicked to escape without a trace?
God is absolute righteousness, love, goodness, and justice. Most errors related to this issue occur because of our human tendency to impose an external standard--a human construction of goodness--upon God. But good does not so much define God as God defines good. God is God, and God is good. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose." [Romans 8:28]
Your conclusion is “God is either: a) Not omnipotent, because he can not make evil not-so, though he wishes he could because he is all-good. b) Not all-good, because even being able to do something about all the evil he decides to do nothing (he is a sadist). c) Something which posseses conflicting qualities, like a square circle, and therefore can not exist.”
The key to your answer is “God is.” God is omnipotent by nature, according to His perfections. God is good and He defines what “good” is and has done something about evil and that “something” will be carried out when it is time.
Now, please answer this for me: would you consider yourself to be a good person?
**********
Sources:
Stand to ReasonAl Mohler Commentary. Aug 30, 2005.
