Here’s a fun article/rant/essay/thing I wrote this afternoon instead of doing my Theory of Writing readings. It’s a bit rough as it’s realistically a first draft, but it’s an interesting read, if I do say so myself. :)

The Religious Condition

Part One

*The Postulates * *God is Perfect (Matthew 5:48; Psalms 19:7; II Samuel 22:31-33)

God is Omnipotent (Genesis 17:1; Job 42:2; Matthew 19:26)

God is Omniscient (reference Psalm 147:405; Isaiah 46:10; Acts 15:18; Romans 4:17; I John 3:20)

Human beings were created with Free Will, and it is this Free Will that has led to the rise of Sin and the Fall of Man from Grace. (Joshua 24:15; Deuteronomy 30:19)

Jesus Christ (as represented in the Bible) is God Incarnate in Human Flesh. Jesus is both One with God and separate from God. (John 5:18; John 8:58 cf. Exodus 33:14; John 10:30-33) * ** NB: The following article addresses the firsts four postulates. The Fifth postulate will be addressed in the follow up article currently in planning. **

I will attempt to address this postulates roughly in order, but they do realistically provoke an integrated response due to the nature of their intertwined

Firstly, God is described as perfect by a number of biblical verses. The most overt of which, directly addressing God as perfect, comes in Matthew 5:48 where the author states: ”… your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” It is therefore reasonable to assume that the standard dogmatical belief of the Judeo-Christian God is that God, in all his forms, is perfect.

What is perfect? A definition of the word ‘perfect’ is as follows:

Lacking nothing essential to the whole; complete of its nature or kind. (Dictionary.com)

Therefore, since God is perfect, God must be essential, and complete to him/itself, within and without himself. This brings a number of flaws into the notion of God’s perfection - namely, if God is perfect, then why did God create the universe in the first place? God, as perfect, is complete and whole unto himself, so why the actual act of creation?

Chad Docterman writes that “if God was all that existed back then, what disturbed the eternal equilibrium and compelled him to create…If something is perfect, it is complete—it needs nothing else.” This is completely correct within our understanding of the meaning of perfect. God, as God, does not desire, nor want, nor wish for anything outside of perfection - being a perfect being, he can only express perfection. Perfection implies no lack or want or wish, ergo, there is no reason for God to do anything other than to exist. As Docterman goes on to state, “if God is perfect, there can be no disequilibrium. There is nothing he needs, nothing he desires, and nothing he must or will do. A God who is perfect does nothing except exist.”

Further, examining the concept of perfection reveals the flaws in the nature of Creation. A perfect being cannot perform or undertake any action that is not perfect, else the being is not truly perfect. Imperfection does not spring from perfection. And yet, we are told in Genesis, that God creates effectively an Imperfect Universe - a universe that falls from perfection, which, due to the nature of perfection, is not possible.

At this point, the issue of free will is inevitably raised to contrast Man’s failings against God’s perfection. However, it must be stated here that if God created Man, then Man, as created by God, was perfect when creation. If God also then imbued Man with the sense of Free Will, then that sense was perfect also - as perfection cannot beget imperfection. Hence, Free Will itself is also perfect, if it stems from God. Thus, Free Will cannot account for imperfection, being perfect, and Man cannot account for imperfection, being perfect.

From this, it is logical to assume either that Free Will or Man were not perfect, leading to the fall of both through the actions of one. Otherwise, if both were perfect, neither could cause the so-called ‘Fall of Man’ to occur - as Man, being perfect, is immune to change or strife, and Free Will, being perfect, is likewise immune, thus leading to no change from perfection on the behalf of either.

Since perfection can only create perfection in any single form and can never create imperfection, either personally or by proxy, the fall of man from perfection or the creation of man as perfect are suspect. We are told that man was made in God’s image, and yet Man fell. God, therefore, cannot be perfect, or none of his works could be less than perfect. And since, by the declaration of both believers and non-believers that the world and many of it’s contents are not perfect, then they cannot have been created perfect - ergo, God is not Perfect.

*Omnipotence: If God is all powerful, can he make a rock so big that he cannot move it? *

God is also addressed as being omnipotent, or all powerful. The concept of omnipotence is relatively easily disproved with simple wordplay, but let us return to the notion of perfection for a moment. God, being all powerful, created the heavens and the earth and all that contains within. He made them imperfectly (being imperfect himself), or, if you like, he made them perfectly and they fell. Here’s where the issue of omnipotence comes into play. If God is omnipotent, then he could have easily prevented anything from becoming imperfect - he can do anything.

People again raise the spectre of Free Will here - God gave people the choice to fall or to not fall, therefore it is not God’s responsibility. But here’s a counter line of reasoning. God is all powerful, hence God can do anything. So, since Sin is so abhorrent to God, he could easily have created human beings that could not do any sin, and would intrisically gravitate towards God’s perspective(s) in matters. He can do this, because he is all powerful.

This concept ties in with Omniscience as well. Omniscience, or all-knowing-ness, is another of the traits that God is declared to have in the Bible. (Isaiah, Psalms, Romans, John). Therefore, God knows absolutely everything that will ever happen, or that has happened. Before God created the Universe, he already knew exactly how it would turn out.

Let us make no bones about the point I’m making here - whether or not Adam and Eve chose to Fall God already knew it would happen. And, since God is omnipotent, he could have easily chosen to prevent it, either by exercising his power or by simply arranging matters so that it could never have come to pass in the first place.

What does this mean? God is inherently responsible for the Fall of Man, as described in the Bible. God is inherently responsible for every single event that happens - because God, being omniscient, knows everything that will happen **no matter whether we choose it or not **and because God has the power to change it. Thus whether or not you claim to have Free Will is irrelevant as to culpability - because even if God did give you the right to choose, he still knows exactly what you will choose. So you’re not really choosing, you’re merely following a predetermined path. Therefore there is no choice, and no Free Will.

Since God knew that Man would fall through his omniscience and he still created Man as he knew that Man would fall, even when he had the power to change it, God is therefore responsible. Since God knew, for instance, before the universe was created, that Adolf Hitler would gas to death over six million people during the Second World War, and since he specifically created the world in which in such a way that the Holocaust would occur than he is responsible.

People talk of a just and compassionate God. But a just and compassionate God, by definition of compassionate and just, cannot be omniscient. God, by his own actions in allowing human misery, sin and slaughter to occur (not to mention knowing that Lucifer would fall and yet still creating him anyway).

So Why would an all knowing all powerful compassionate God create a world in which he knew all of this would happen in the way that he knew it would happen? Easy. He wanted to. If God is all powerful and can do anything, then anything he does must be something he wants to do - otherwise he’s not all powerful, he is limited in his actions. Hence, God wanted the Holocaust. God wanted the Black Plague. God wanted the Crusades. If he’d wanted to, he could have created a world where they could not have happened, if he was all powerful. But he chose not to - and if you believe he is omniscient, then he knew what the results of his actions would have been, no matter whether people chose them or not.

Moral responsibility, God has.

So God is not perfect, or else the world would be perfect now. God is not all knowing and all powerful unless he is not just and compassionate and wants people to suffer - to suffer, might I add, from actions that stemmed from God’s own personal decisions and motivations. God sent Lucifer to tempt Adam and Eve, God placed the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden in the first place. He knew, when he did so, what would happen, but he did it anyway. Why? He wanted to.

*—End Part One— *

References

rnBible Gateway Online (2005) New Internation Version, King James Version [Available: http://bible.gospelcom.net/] (Accessed 31/5/2005)

Docterman C; Why the Christian God is Impossible [Available: http://www.evilbible.com/Impossible.htm] (Accessed: 31/5/2005)

Google Answers (2004) The Bible and Free Will [Available: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=386404] (Accessed: 31/5/2005)

Inquisitive Atheists: Does Free Will Vindicate God? [Available: http://www.geocities.com/inquisitive79/vindicate.html] (Accessed 31/5/2005)

Kostelnik S (2005) What is God? [Available: http://members.nuvox.net/~on.roz/God/what/index.html] (Accessed: 31/5/2005)

SAB Online; Do humans have free will? [Available: http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/free.html] (Accessed: 31/5/2005)

Alcata’riel.

rn-Andiyar