Examining the Supreme
[Pardon any errors, typed this on my BlackBerry over spring break, just decided to upload without proofread.]
In the judea-christian religion, the traditional belief is that their God is all powerful, eternal, benevolent – an image of perfection. But, with the imperfections in the world, many claim him to be flawed – or perhaps he is brilliant crafter. Are these imperfections just human misinterpretation, or reasons to an end to aid us?
In an examination of God, he would have to be eternal – or else he would not be all powerful. If he came into existence there would have had to been an even greater being to bring him into existence. In the same fashion, God could not be destroyed for then a greater being than God would have to destroy him; unless he so chose to cease his own existance. Further, in redundancy, this God must be all powerful to perpetuate his eternal existence.
If the eternity of God is held to be true, God is proved to have existed before the creation of our world. It is then easy to believe, him being all powerful, to have created our world in whatever means he used. God is then all knowing because all events in our history are effects of his cause. If this holds true, then God is therefore the creator of all aspects in our earthly life; things like existence, happiness, and evil. Humans are then a byproduct of God’s means also, with each action effected by God’s initial action. As this stands, humans are then God’s children, under him, and in a certain aspect constrained by God’s will. How free can human’s then be? If each action is constrained by God’s action, then is God also committing evil like mankind? This calls God’s benevolence into question, and if it’s questioned is he flawed?
So it is now said that God is all powerful, all knowing, and the creator of our world. There are two problems that are now called into question: what is the extent of human freedom, and why the existence of evil? Would God be all powerful if he could not do or create evil? Perhaps the manifestation of evil is part of God’s creation, purposely, and mankinds reaction gives it meaning. If God created a perfect world, mankind would have one choice: to live on ever happy during their life. However, God gave mankind free-will; would a perfect world allow the free-will mankind has to flourish? Or was God truly all intelligent and powerful to create a world with evil as a means to fulfill mankinds free will. Is God so benevolent that he gave mankind the choice to flee and disobey him instead of forcing them with one way of life?
Worldly evil is then just a perception of mankind, actions done on earth and not by God. It is not then God’s intention for human suffering, but the decision for mankind to be free. This then creates the responsibility of other humans to provide compassion and love for their neighbors, creating a path for righteousness. The Judea-Christian theism believes mankin was made in “God’s image,” and this is perhaps how it transcends into reality.
There is still one anomaly. God’s all powerfull abilities may have created and beautifully crafted a system for humans to exhibit free-will and freedom. But has his perfection also completely destroyed it? God’s omniscience directly revokes all work created to preserve free will and freedom. With God’s omniscience, evil would have never needed to existed for humans; will never be completely free due to this error? Either God is not wholly benevolant or God is not omniscient, and both conclusions are not acceptable under Judea-Christian terms. It is the to be inferred that God must then choose to cease to exist to allow his children to be free.
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