, June 2001
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This is a slightly humorous look at the logical inconsistency of the
Christian God. Of course, nothing here is going to stop people believing what they want to believe! The original version was posted on the GodAndScience weblog on 5 June 2001. "The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence." [Psalms 115:17] The Christian concept of god is internally inconsistent. It can therefore be shown that its god does not exist. Judaeo-Christian mythology derives from the Bible. It teaches that "God" is omnipresent and omniscient. There is no God but Him. There is nothing except His creation. He is (apparently) "infinite love". "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." [Psalms 90:2]But even though His "...knowledge is infinite" [Psalms 147:5] there is no indication from the Bible that God's knowledge extends to future events. Certainly, He seems to have the final say in how events transpire (He's omnipotent after all); but everywhere in the Bible God warns mankind of the consequences of its actions, and punishes (or very rarely rewards) His creation accordingly. Many Christians argue that God does know the future as well as the past. But this position is fraught with difficulties. If God "knows" the future; then he "knew" in advance that the snake would tempt Eve; that Eve would tempt Adam; of the "Fall of man"; of the loss of faith in Him which led to Noah's Flood and the Tower of Babel; of the Evil of Sodom; of the birth and death of Christ; and of the rise of Christianity and all of the evil committed in its name or otherwise. He would "know" which of us will find faith or lose it. For God to "know" the future would completely contradict the doctrine of "Free Will"... Sure, it might seem like "Free Will" to mankind; but if God knows the future, then everything is to all intents and purposes determined. But could God, by choice, choose not to interfere (or to interfere only discriminately) with the march of time? If that is the case, then why does God get angry when we fail? He knew it would occur, surely? If God is able to see the future and the past, why does the Bible show him taking such a decidedly event-by-event approach in his actions? "God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies; The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." [Nahum 1:2-3]Some Christians seem to accept that God does not "know" the future: "...The key word here is "foreknow." It is used but a few... times in the New Testament. In Acts, chapter two it refers to God's forknowledge and determinate counsel in regard to Jesus sufferings and death. In Romans, chapter eleven, and 1 Peter 1:2 it refers to the same thing as it does here. The word does NOT mean to see the future. Many have interpreted it to mean that God sees the future, sees who will choose Him and decides to choose them. This is scholarship of the poorest order..." (Daniel John Graham, "Who Does God Love?", Christia Mailing List)Those that argue that God does know the future (like GodAndScience) point to verses such as: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." [Proverbs 3:5-6]...But this does not say that God knows the future; only that he will "direct" us if we "trust" in him. That isn't the same thing at all! Another argument which fails to hold water is that of "prophesy". If God has the power to influence events, then he can make whatever he prophesies come true anyway - without the need for "future knowledge". In summary, not only is there no indication that God does know the future - but it would be logically inconsistent for him to do so. This is where the concept of the Christian God falls completely apart in the face of science. Einstein's theory of "Special Relativity", like all science, does not pretend to explain everything... But it explains (and has been proven) enough to show that time is as fundamental a part of the Universe as is space. If God is bound by the structure of time, he is also bound by the structure of space. He cannot be "all that there is". There could be a god beyond our comprehension... But the logical inconsistencies of the Christian God show that "He" cannot, and therefore does not, exist. If God exists, his nature is unknowable. Welcome, believers only, to the world of agnosticism...
With thanks to Ipazia Teoni.
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