[lit-ideas] Re: TUESDAY'S FORCAST

--- On Wed, 29/7/09, Walter C. Okshevsky <wokshevs@xxxxxx> wrote:

> Hmmm ... Does an omniscient and omnipotent "being" really
> have reasons?
> Rendering this thought in transcendental locution: Is it
> *possible* for a
> "being" answering to this description to have reasons?
> (That we mere mortals
> often do attribute reasons and intentionality to god is not
> in question.) 

As mentioned some years ago, the notions of all-knowing and all-powerful are at 
odds with each other and in themselves paradoxical:

at odds because if God knows all then S/He must know what is to come, but if 
this is known then God cannot be empowered to change what is to come because 
the capacity to change it would mean it cannot be known in advance;

paradoxical because if God is all-powerful then God must have the power to do 
something that even God is powerless to undo, in which case God is not all 
powerful; and if God does not have the power to do something God cannot undo, 
then God is also not all powerful;

paradoxical because if God is all-knowing then God must know all about God, but 
if God knew all about God then S/He...actually I haven't thought this one 
through. 

Donal
If God cannot have reasons then S/He is not all-powerful, since S/He lacks the 
capacity or power to have reasons. So there.




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