Thursday, June 21, 2007

On Omnipotence

Have you heard this argument?

God is omnipotent.
Omnipotence means that you can make the end come into existence independant of any means.
(i.e. means are only used when one can't immediately acheive the end, so an omnipotent being would never use them)
Since the God of Christianity often uses means, this means that either:
A) He's not really omnipotent. or
B) The concept of omnipotency makes no sense in a temporal world.

Here is why this argument is futile: It says, basically, "Here is a rule by which an omnipotent being would always act. He would always go straight to the end, never using intermediate means to accomplish His goals." However, such a rule cannot apply to an omnipotent being, because an omnipotent being, by definition, does whatever He wants. He doesn't have to follow that rule. If He wants to use some means to accomplish an end, He can do that: He's omnipotent. He can do whatever He wants.

1 comment:

Eli said...

Is this blog a joke? Are you a troll? Because nothing here resembles rational thought in any particular way.