The Problem of the Omni's
By Wertbag ~
The Christian God is claimed to have all of the omni traits, that is that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-good and all-loving. It is only this insistence of omni traits that leads to many of the problems with the claims. There is no problem of evil if God does not care (many other religions have either apathetic or evil Gods) or if God is limited in His ability to achieve what He wants (many other religions put such limitations on their ideas of God, with pantheons of Gods who are given specific portfolios), but to claim He is both all-loving and all-powerful leads to the idea conflicting with the suffering we see in the world.
It also conflicts with Him being all-knowing, as this means He knew that Hitler was going to exterminate 6 million of His followers centuries in advance and yet having all that time to change that outcome, He failed to take any steps to prevent that horror. If you know a crime is going to be committed and it is within your power to stop it at no risk or cost to yourself, then to fail to take the action to save lives makes you complicit. Anyone in their right mind would consider someone failing to act as a moral monster, if not criminally liable for failure to act. Throughout the western world we have laws saying that failure to provide care, food or medical aid for children is a crime, while God fails even this bare minimum level of care on a daily basis.
If God is all-omni, then why create Earth at all? He needs nothing, He is already perfect. Creating Earth leads to horrific suffering for both animals and His beloved humans, while prior to that He already had heaven which was populated by all-good angels. A realm of perfect love and happiness, for which there could be no improvement. So, Earth is a net negative. An experiment that an all-knowing God would already know the result of.
If God is all-powerful then Satan could not challenge Him and God would not need the devil to achieve anything. He has no need of Jesus's sacrifice or any of the thousands of animal sacrifices prior to that, as He needs nothing. If He wishes to grant mercy and redemption, then as He is all-powerful, He could do so without all of the bloodshed.
If God is all-good and all-loving, then why do we get horrific laws like stoning to death people for the victimless crime of working on the sabbath? Why do we see people killed for name calling or for trying to save the falling Ark? Why do we hear passages say, "blessed are they who smash babies on rocks"?
God is all-loving but commands horrific things. He is all-powerful but has failed to get His will known and followed by the world. He is all-knowing but has not taken steps to stop the evil that He knows is coming. Being all-loving He should want it to be better, being all-powerful He has the ability to make the world better, being all-knowing He is well aware of every problem and how best to mitigate those issues, and despite having no cost and taking no effort to fix any of the world's problems, He steadfastly refuses to act.
The Christian God is claimed to have all of the omni traits, that is that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-good and all-loving. It is only this insistence of omni traits that leads to many of the problems with the claims. There is no problem of evil if God does not care (many other religions have either apathetic or evil Gods) or if God is limited in His ability to achieve what He wants (many other religions put such limitations on their ideas of God, with pantheons of Gods who are given specific portfolios), but to claim He is both all-loving and all-powerful leads to the idea conflicting with the suffering we see in the world.
It also conflicts with Him being all-knowing, as this means He knew that Hitler was going to exterminate 6 million of His followers centuries in advance and yet having all that time to change that outcome, He failed to take any steps to prevent that horror. If you know a crime is going to be committed and it is within your power to stop it at no risk or cost to yourself, then to fail to take the action to save lives makes you complicit. Anyone in their right mind would consider someone failing to act as a moral monster, if not criminally liable for failure to act. Throughout the western world we have laws saying that failure to provide care, food or medical aid for children is a crime, while God fails even this bare minimum level of care on a daily basis.
If God is all-omni, then why create Earth at all? He needs nothing, He is already perfect. Creating Earth leads to horrific suffering for both animals and His beloved humans, while prior to that He already had heaven which was populated by all-good angels. A realm of perfect love and happiness, for which there could be no improvement. So, Earth is a net negative. An experiment that an all-knowing God would already know the result of.
If God is all-powerful then Satan could not challenge Him and God would not need the devil to achieve anything. He has no need of Jesus's sacrifice or any of the thousands of animal sacrifices prior to that, as He needs nothing. If He wishes to grant mercy and redemption, then as He is all-powerful, He could do so without all of the bloodshed.
If God is all-good and all-loving, then why do we get horrific laws like stoning to death people for the victimless crime of working on the sabbath? Why do we see people killed for name calling or for trying to save the falling Ark? Why do we hear passages say, "blessed are they who smash babies on rocks"?
God is all-loving but commands horrific things. He is all-powerful but has failed to get His will known and followed by the world. He is all-knowing but has not taken steps to stop the evil that He knows is coming. Being all-loving He should want it to be better, being all-powerful He has the ability to make the world better, being all-knowing He is well aware of every problem and how best to mitigate those issues, and despite having no cost and taking no effort to fix any of the world's problems, He steadfastly refuses to act.
Originally posted in the Reasons for Disbelief thread on Ex-Christian.Net
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