“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then from whence comes evil?”
I used to think that omniscient and omnipotent god would directly conflict with the idea of free will, which is pretty important for this whole salvation thing. The alternative being that god created you so you would go to hell/heaven and there is nothing you can do to change it, right?
But as I’ve thought about it, I can’t really get around the idea that an omniscient and omnipotent being could choose to not know something. It seems like there would be no direct conflict with omniscience as long as the things you don’t know, you could know at any moment, should you decide to.
It’s all academic really since this is one of the least ridiculous things about religion and the idea of supernatural beings having control over our lives. But it doesn’t feel as ironclad a contradiction as I once thought. I’m curious if others in this community can weigh in with a rebuttal.
In God’s case, though, he literally made it all happen on purpose. It’s a “stop hitting yourself” kinda situation, only entirely sincere in the belief that they are hitting themselves
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