The Idea of God Is Incoherent
‘The idea of God is incoherent’ discuss. (30 marks)
I will be discussing how the idea of God is incoherent due to many of his traditional attributes being mutually incoherent. God cannot possess many of his attributes together because they simply do not make sense.
First is God’s omnipotence. He is said to be all-powerful, for example it is said in Genesis that “God created the heavens and the earth”. His omnipotence is shown in the creation of the world and how the world still ceases to exist, as he is sustaining it. Omnipotence is one of the key attributes that God must possess in order for the idea of God to be coherent. But can God do the logically impossible? For example can God make 1+1=3? It is beyond the realms of logic and is a logical impossibility. It is simply impossible. Pious philosophers argue that logic is no limit on God’s omnipotence but many philosophers have limited god’s omnipotence to ‘the power to do anything logically possible’ as logical impossibilities are simply nothing at all. There is also the stone paradox. Can God create a stone He cannot lift? If he does create it, then He will not be able to lift the stone and therefore he is not omnipotent as there is something he cannot do. However if he doesn’t create the stone then there is also something he cannot do and cannot be omnipotence. But as many philosophers would argue, this is a contradiction in its self and therefore is a pseudo-task. It looks like a threat, but again it is a logically impossibility and therefore is nothing at all.
God’s omnipotence and supreme goodness (Omni-benevolence) are mutually incoherent attributes with the existence of evil. This is known as the inconsistent triad because these 2 attributes and the proposition ‘evil exists’ cannot all co-exist. How is it possible for evil to exist in the world and God being all-loving if he has the power to stop it? The idea of God appears to be incoherent. For example, God does not want us to die of starvation because
I will be discussing how the idea of God is incoherent due to many of his traditional attributes being mutually incoherent. God cannot possess many of his attributes together because they simply do not make sense.
First is God’s omnipotence. He is said to be all-powerful, for example it is said in Genesis that “God created the heavens and the earth”. His omnipotence is shown in the creation of the world and how the world still ceases to exist, as he is sustaining it. Omnipotence is one of the key attributes that God must possess in order for the idea of God to be coherent. But can God do the logically impossible? For example can God make 1+1=3? It is beyond the realms of logic and is a logical impossibility. It is simply impossible. Pious philosophers argue that logic is no limit on God’s omnipotence but many philosophers have limited god’s omnipotence to ‘the power to do anything logically possible’ as logical impossibilities are simply nothing at all. There is also the stone paradox. Can God create a stone He cannot lift? If he does create it, then He will not be able to lift the stone and therefore he is not omnipotent as there is something he cannot do. However if he doesn’t create the stone then there is also something he cannot do and cannot be omnipotence. But as many philosophers would argue, this is a contradiction in its self and therefore is a pseudo-task. It looks like a threat, but again it is a logically impossibility and therefore is nothing at all.
God’s omnipotence and supreme goodness (Omni-benevolence) are mutually incoherent attributes with the existence of evil. This is known as the inconsistent triad because these 2 attributes and the proposition ‘evil exists’ cannot all co-exist. How is it possible for evil to exist in the world and God being all-loving if he has the power to stop it? The idea of God appears to be incoherent. For example, God does not want us to die of starvation because