Monday, 10 May 2010

ways in which God's attributes are mutually incoherent

N – God is said to be omnipotence but he is in fact limited by logic
E – God is omnipotence meaning he is all powerful, much more powerful that any of us humans. Showing that god is not like us in anyway, he is beyond us and he will always be something different to us. That said god cannot do the impossible, he cannot perform something logically incoherent. God therefore can’t go above reason.
I – He cannot make 2 + 2 = 5 because he is bound by the laws of logic. And even though he is all powerful he could never possibly be able to make a stone he could not lift.
L – This attribute is therefore not coherent as god could never be beyond the laws of logic or reason no matter how powerful he is.

N – A huge contradiction of gods attributes is the problem of evil when god is meant to be benevolent and hold supreme goodness.
E – God is very lovable to his creation and is said to be benevolent, forgiving and caring. If god controls what happens and is supremely good and loving towards us then why does he show us through evil and hate. A god that loved his creation could surely not let there be so much evil.
I – there are many forms of evil on this earth: war, natural disasters, crime and so on. A benevolent being shouldn’t and wouldn’t let this all happen surely.
L – Therefore benevolence is not mutually coherent with all the disasters and bad things that happen in this world.

or

Name: God cannot be eternal and omnipotent
Explain: To be eternal god needs to have no beginning and no end, but to be omnipotent god needs to be able to act in time
Illustrate: If god acts in time then he is not eternal as he will be subject to time and must have a beginning and end, but if god does not act in time then he cannot be as powerful as something that does act in time and god must have acted in time to create our universe, which means he has a beginning and an end so he cannot be eternal if he is omnipotent.
Link: These attributes are mutually incoherent because to be omnipotent god must act in time meaning he cannot be eternal

Name: God cannot be transcendent and immanent
Explain: Transcendent and immanent seem to be opposites
Illustrate: To be transcendent god must be metaphysical and outside of the physical world. But to be immanent god must be actively involved in the physical world, so he cannot be both as if he is metaphysical he cannot be in the physical world and if he is imminent he cannot be metaphysical as he would not be involved in the physical world
Link: This shows that the attributes of god are mutually incoherent as god cannot be both transcendent and immanent.