Logical Coherence

When a worldview is asserted by someone I think it should be checked by the receiving party for logical coherence before being accepted as a possible truth. The three main logical inconsistencies I hear relating to Christianity/theism are these:

1.       God is Omnipotent

Omnipotence in the sense of unlimited power is incoherent. It is not possible in logic as is highlighted by the question, “Can God make a rock too big for him to move?” Nothing can be more powerful that itself, so God could be the most powerful thing but He is not omnipotent in the sense of having unlimited power, in the sense that He could override His own previous or future omnipotent actions.

Hebrews 6:18 even goes as far as saying that God can’t lie, not something I would have expected for an all-powerful (or even very powerful) being. I’m not powerful at all and, although I’m as honest as possible, I find it easy to lie.

2.       Freewill and Predestination

The idea that a previous/future omnipotent action can’t be overridden also drives a horse and cart through the idea that we can have freewill and also be predestined. If that were the case then the omnipotent decision about our future couldn't be changed and predestination would win. You can’t have an unalterable destination and yet decide where you are going. You can’t be driver and passenger.

Worse is the idea that someone like me is predestined to destruction and its also my own fault for being destroyed. That makes no sense morally.

3.       Problem of Suffering (Theodicy)

Put simply this is the idea that if God was all-knowing (omnipresent), all-loving (omnibenevolent) and all-powerful (omnipotent) then there would be no suffering in the world. He would know about our suffering, have compassion on us and act on that to provide relief. But we can see there is suffering in the world. Therefore, this god doesn’t exist.

So, if God with some of these properties exists, then I think we are left with three options:

• If God were all-knowing and all-loving he knows our suffering, but is powerless to do anything about it.
• If God were all-knowing and all-powerful then he knows we suffer but doesn’t care.
• If God were all-loving and all-powerful then he doesn’t know we are suffering.

All of these options are logically coherent, but not generally how God is presented.

It has been argued that God is all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful, but that he can’t express these three qualities without giving something else up, like our freewill. Two comments on that: firstly, as hinted at above, it could be that freewill is an illusion anyway, and secondly, it makes it impossible to assert that there is a ‘better’ world, a.k.a ‘The Kingdom of God’. Unless, for example, there is no freewill in the kingdom.