Theodicy: What If God Is Not All-Powerful?

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1610

Abstract

s in the big picture. But tragedy makes theologians of us all, and I am not sure that I want a god whose goodness I cannot hope to comprehend. Why would such a god be worth worship?</li><li>If God is omnipotent and omni-benevolent, then it doesn’t make sense that God could also be omniscient. I can excuse a very good god who is all-powerful allowing bad things to happen if that god had no idea they were going to happen. Such a god wouldn’t be guilty or weak, but merely ignorant. This is both the least offensive and the least convincing option. An ignorant god could not possibly be the Creator God of which Christian theism boasts.</li><li>If God is omniscient and omni-benevolent, then God must not be omnipotent. This is a god who sees all and means well, but does not have the power to stop tragedy. This is a god who loves and heals, who understands and anticipates, who probably experiences disappointment even though privy to all of the spoilers. Personally, this is the god that I like the most.</li></ul>I can get behind the idea of a god who is not all-powerful. I like the idea of tragedy and evil being explainable in terms of laws of physics and free will, two principles that translate into God limiting Godself. I like that there are laws of physics that we can trust, that help us do crazy things like build airplanes. I like that there are laws of physics to also explain why airplanes sometimes crash. I would not trust a god who bends the laws of physics to benefit some and harm others.I like that free will means that goodness can be genuine rath

Options

er than a pre-programmed response. It also means that loving actions are loving in part because a person has the ability to choose otherwise — we are not mindless drones fulfilling our duties, we are humans choosing to be kind. And unfortunately, sometimes we choose to be unkind instead. I like the idea of a god who believes that love and light will not perish in the darkness of our scared hearts, a god who continues to teach us how to love one another even as we distort the image of what that means.I like the idea of God being limited by physics and free will because it means that God has given us tools, knowledge, choices, and abilities to develop and protect. It means that God respects us. It means that God would rather us discover, create, design, and innovate with trust that the laws of physics will not suddenly change as we explore existence. And it means that God would rather us love with freedom than limit us to loving only insofar as we are forced to by a lack of choice.Is this insanely frustrating when my heart is broken by tragedy? Absolutely it is. It’s downright painful.Are people angry with me when I suggest that God is not all-powerful, even if I give the addendum that God has chosen to limit God’s own powers out of a sense of omniscience and omni-benevolence? You betcha.Do I realize that God choosing to limit God’s own power is still, in a way, omnipotence at work? Theology is mind-bending gymnastics. That’s what makes it fun.</article></body>

Theodicy: What If God Is Not All-Powerful?

A theodicy is when someone tries to give a response to the presence of evil in a world created by God. More so, a theodicy is seeking to answer the question, “Why does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people?”

Perhaps God is not good, or not powerful enough to stop evil, or does not know beforehand that a tragedy is about to strike.

But Christians do claim that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent. “Omni” means “all,” and “in all ways,” and “in all places.”

An omnipotent god is all-powerful.

An omniscient god is all-knowing or all-seeing.

And an omni-benevolent god is always good or well-meaning.

It stands to reason that you can only choose two.

If God is omnipotent and omniscient, it is hard to imagine that God is also omni-benevolent. I know that people will argue that God’s goodness is beyond human understanding, that God’s goodness extends into mystery and beyond time, and that what does not seem good to us now may actually be very good for us in the big picture. But tragedy makes theologians of us all, and I am not sure that I want a god whose goodness I cannot hope to comprehend. Why would such a god be worth worship?

If God is omnipotent and omni-benevolent, then it doesn’t make sense that God could also be omniscient. I can excuse a very good god who is all-powerful allowing bad things to happen if that god had no idea they were going to happen. Such a god wouldn’t be guilty or weak, but merely ignorant. This is both the least offensive and the least convincing option. An ignorant god could not possibly be the Creator God of which Christian theism boasts.

If God is omniscient and omni-benevolent, then God must not be omnipotent. This is a god who sees all and means well, but does not have the power to stop tragedy. This is a god who loves and heals, who understands and anticipates, who probably experiences disappointment even though privy to all of the spoilers. Personally, this is the god that I like the most.

I can get behind the idea of a god who is not all-powerful. I like the idea of tragedy and evil being explainable in terms of laws of physics and free will, two principles that translate into God limiting Godself. I like that there are laws of physics that we can trust, that help us do crazy things like build airplanes. I like that there are laws of physics to also explain why airplanes sometimes crash. I would not trust a god who bends the laws of physics to benefit some and harm others.

I like that free will means that goodness can be genuine rather than a pre-programmed response. It also means that loving actions are loving in part because a person has the ability to choose otherwise — we are not mindless drones fulfilling our duties, we are humans choosing to be kind. And unfortunately, sometimes we choose to be unkind instead. I like the idea of a god who believes that love and light will not perish in the darkness of our scared hearts, a god who continues to teach us how to love one another even as we distort the image of what that means.

I like the idea of God being limited by physics and free will because it means that God has given us tools, knowledge, choices, and abilities to develop and protect. It means that God respects us. It means that God would rather us discover, create, design, and innovate with trust that the laws of physics will not suddenly change as we explore existence. And it means that God would rather us love with freedom than limit us to loving only insofar as we are forced to by a lack of choice.

Is this insanely frustrating when my heart is broken by tragedy? Absolutely it is. It’s downright painful.

Are people angry with me when I suggest that God is not all-powerful, even if I give the addendum that God has chosen to limit God’s own powers out of a sense of omniscience and omni-benevolence? You betcha.

Do I realize that God choosing to limit God’s own power is still, in a way, omnipotence at work? Theology is mind-bending gymnastics. That’s what makes it fun.