[Debate] The Problem of Evil [Religion] (79)

35 Name: Anonymous Scientist : 2008-06-29 22:17 ID:wf1C+plZ

>>34 does not realize that if this version of God exist, humanity does not and cannot have free will, even in principle.

This version of the Judeo-Christian God is, granted, more a creation of 19th and 20th Century theologians than anything found in the original source material. But I do not think he grasps fully the meaning of the words "omnipotent" and "omniscient."

Consider a sandstorm on the planet Mars. The position and trajectory of every particle of dust in it is known to this God and cannot exist other than in accordance to the will of this God, who brought the universe into existence by the power of His own will. Nothing can exist and nothing can happen that is contrary to His will, and nothing can exist and nothing can happen that is unknown to Him.

The orbit of every electron around every atom in our brains is known to Him and cannot move contrary to His will. His divine plan requires it.

Thus we are not truly alive at all. We have no will of our own. We are humaniform puddles of blue-green algae that He uses as finger-puppets, telling Himself a long intricate story so that He won't be lonely in the big empty universe He made. He has provided us the illusion that we exist, that we experience pleasure and pain, that we make choices, but nothing of the kind is happening. We are the hands on the clock face of a clockwork universe He constructed and wound up. No more. And we are of no more significance than any pebble orbiting in the rings of Saturn.

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