tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20930767.post299276567318136880..comments2023-06-01T14:08:49.977+00:00Comments on Confessions of a Doubting Thomas: Our God is bigger than your god...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20930767.post-5275301460576249752008-11-06T17:07:00.000+00:002008-11-06T17:07:00.000+00:00Josh, hello.OK. Lets consider the case of the 2004...Josh, hello.<BR/><BR/>OK. Lets consider the case of the 2004 tsunami. It was a terrible 'natural' event. Loads of people died.<BR/><BR/>An Omniscient God would have known that the natural event would occur.<BR/><BR/>An Omnipresent God would be in the right place at the right time to influence the circumstances.<BR/><BR/>An Omnipotent God would be able to prevent the bad events from happening.<BR/><BR/>An Omnibenevolent God would want to spare his children from suffering.<BR/><BR/>But the tsunami actually happened, therefore either (a) there is no God, or (b) the God that is there is not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and omnibenevolent.<BR/><BR/>Which is it?<BR/><BR/>I don't believe that God is all those omnis. I don't believe that the bible <I>presents</I> God as being all those omnis (except omnibenevolent).<BR/><BR/>The tsunami could have occurred inf God is very big, very knowledgable about the past (but not the future) and quite strong, but is not in all places at all times.<BR/><BR/>What do you think?Ricky Carvelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17975085318645232701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20930767.post-3786218136157461692008-11-06T16:56:00.000+00:002008-11-06T16:56:00.000+00:00I wouldn't say that they are an exaggeration, rath...I wouldn't say that they are an exaggeration, rather that they send you up the spout. We don't have a God who can do everything humanly concept-able, we have a God who does whatever he wants to, without anyone or anything being able to stop him. But we are fortunate enough to be able to like what he does. So rather than being defined by some abstract concept, God's actions are best described by his own nature specifically his will and personality, to which our categories are approximations.<BR/><BR/>Basically, God reserves the right to disobey our conceptual frameworks, and when he does, we shouldn't claim that therefore he doesn't exist, we should bring our ideas back to the evidence, which includes his self-revelation.<BR/><BR/>I'd be quite interested if you could post links to the arguments or summarise them, are they arguments from evil? Logical contradictions (unopenable lock etc) or something else?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20930767.post-24248557833175515062008-10-11T22:04:00.000+00:002008-10-11T22:04:00.000+00:00> Sorry Chris.No problem, my friend. You're...> Sorry Chris.<BR/><BR/>No problem, my friend. You're welcome round at my blog any time.<BR/><BR/>I once had a heated argument with a good friend as to whether 0.999... reoccurring was identical to one or not [yes, I'm a fellow geek!]. This strikes me as a similar argument. <BR/><BR/>A little bit less than infinite is still infinite. <BR/><BR/>> Just pause for a minute and consider, is the God you believe in actually consistent with the reality around you?<BR/><BR/>I think that's the nub of the problem... which is why it is so important how you view the world, and what you allow to shape your concept of reality.Chris Hamer-Hodgeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15680998868164693275noreply@blogger.com