2 posts tagged “religion”

Can omniscient God, who
Knows the future, find
The omnipotence to
Change his future mind?
~ Karen Owens (as quoted in The God Delusion (soft cover, 2007) by Richard Dawkins, p. 101)

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This post has been a long time coming, I just never really had the time to post something until... well... now. Continuing with the things I wanted to share from Dawkins' book and also building on the previous post is this poem by Karen Owens.

The previous post (found here) discussing the oddity of prayer, noted that prayer was strange because it contradicts the sincerity of wanting God to do His will. A counter-argument could be launched that God can always change the course of events whenever He wants - which is true, insofar that He failed to make up His omniscient mind when He first thought out the matters of the world.

But really, being all-powerful and all-knowing seems to be odd traits if only because being all-knowing makes it very hard to all-powerfully change the course of events. To better illustrate, my girlfriend shared with me a very similar paradox that the Chinese have puzzled over for some time, it goes:

"Imagine the sharpest knife in the world - a knife that will cut through everything on heaven and earth. Now, imagine a wall so unbreakable that it will resist any worldly and otherworldly attack on it. What would happen if you tried to use the all-cutting knife to cut the all-resisting wall?"

The paradox exposes the problem with being too perfect. There is no possible answer because answering either way would mean the perfection of the other would be eliminated. If the wall broke, it is no longer all-resisting but if the knife failed to cut then it would not be all-cutting. In the same way, if He had to change His omniscient mind with His omnipotence then He can no longer be omniscient and if He could not use His omnipotence to change His mind then He cannot be said to be omnipotent.

Perhaps I should resort to what my Christian fellowship and church friends have always advised me to do - pray for an answer. Certainly, He already knows whether He will answer or not, that is, unless He changes His mind about it. (0___o)

"Pray, v. : To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy." ~ Ambrose Bierce (as quoted in The God Delusion (soft cover, 2007) by Richard Dawkins, p. 84)

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As could be gathered from above, I've been reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and have found it quite the delightful read (I have read Dawkins' before but in a different light and for a different reason). In the book, Dawkins' sets out to prove the non-existence of God in good humour and his attack on religion is very refreshing.

To be sure, the book is out for blood - the blood of God, and it does well in arguing for the implausibility of the existence of God. Dawkins' swiftly but surely shoots down almost every major argument that has been utilised in the defence of God by revealing their ludicrous premise (though his focus is on scientific proof, his arguments inadvertently cover philosophical and theological proofs of God's non-existence).

In regard to quotes, I have to say that I love quotes and have been collecting them since I was about 12. Quotes are beautiful in that they manage to summarise massive concepts and call on thoughtful analysis that could take up entire volumes. There are already some other quotes I'd like to share from the book, but for now I will leave it at this.

Pertaining to this quote specifically, I have to admit that I have always criticised prayer because of its selfish nature (even when praying on behalf of another individual). Indeed, I have always found it amusing how people pray for very personal issues and then, in midst of prayer, slip in the statement "Your will be done" - if one was sincere about having Him do His will then the prayer must be misguided because it is in the hopes that He will not do His will... to that point, whether the prayer is answered or not, it was always His will to begin with!

Anyway, I could likely sing on about this forever if I don't stop now! It's already late and Yuna Ito singing Precious in the background doesn't help in keeping one awake either, LOL! *O(-___-)m*zzz*ZZZZ*zzz*