- The Concept of God: The Coherence of Omnipotence
- God’s Omnipresence, Eternality, and Omniscience
- The Coherence of the Doctrine of the Trinity
- The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity
According to classical theism, God, the Creator of the universe, is the Supremely Perfect Being. This Supremely Perfect Being is simple (not composed of parts), eternal (has always existed and always will exist), omnipotent (unlimited in power), omniscient (knows everything), omnipresent (not spatially limited), perfectly wise, and perfectly Good. According to orthodox Christian Trinitarian theology, this God has existed eternally as a relationship of three “Persons,”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Nontheists have criticized various aspects of classical Christian theism as incoherent. Some nontheists have argued that certain Divine attributes are inherently incoherent, while others have argued that some Divine attributes are incompatible with other Divine attributes. If these criticisms are correct and the Christian concept of God is incoherent, then the case for the truth of Christianity obviously cannot even get off the ground.
In this apologetics series, I will respond to these objections to the coherence of Christian theism, and show that, in fact, the Christian concept of God is perfectly coherent and reasonable.
The “Stone” Argument
Let’s begin with omnipotence. One popular argument against the coherence of omnipotence goes as follows: If God is omnipotent, then God can do anything. This means that He can create anything. This means that He can create a stone so large that even an omnipotent being cannot lift it. But if He cannot lift this stone, then He is not omnipotent. On the other hand, if He is actually unable to create such a stone, then He is not omnipotent either. Thus, the very concept of omnipotence is incoherent.
At first glance, this may seem like a successful argument. However, upon closer analysis, it turns out to be sophistry.
Omnipotence means that God can do anything; there are no limitations on His power. But a contradiction is meaningless; it is not a thing at all. “A stone so large that even an omnipotent being cannot lift it” is simply a contradiction; it is a phrase that has no meaning. Thus, it does not constitute a thing that God is unable to create, since it is not a thing at all.
God could create anything. For example, even though God has not created unicorns, He is able to create them, since there is nothing contradictory about a horse having a horn on its head. But God cannot create a contradiction. For example, God cannot create something that both exists and does not exist at the same time. To speak of something that both exists and does not exist at the same time is meaningless.
Claiming that God is omnipotent is not a claim that God can violate the logical law of noncontradiction. It is simply a claim that God is not limited in power. The logical law of noncontradiction is not an external limitation on God’s power; it is simply a fundamental insight of the human mind about what it means to talk about anything that exists at all. God is omnipotent, which means that God can do anything. But to speak of God doing something contradictory, such as creating a stone so large that even an omnipotent being cannot lift it, is to speak meaningless words, rather than to speak about something which God cannot do. Thus, the “stone” argument fails to show in any way that the concept of omnipotence is incoherent.
Divine Omnipotence and Divine Goodness
Some have argued that Divine omnipotence and Divine Goodness are incompatible attributes. If God is omnipotent, then God can do anything. But if God is perfectly good, then God can only do what is good; God cannot do anything that is evil. But this means that there are some things which God is unable to do, which seems to contradict the idea that God is omnipotent.
What this argument fails to recognize is that doing something evil is an imperfection. Since God is the Supremely Perfect Being, God always acts perfectly. The fact that God would never do anything evil is not due to a lack of power; it is due to a perfection of power.
Many people think of being and power as simply neutral, able to be directed to good or evil ends. But, according to Christianity, this is false. According to Christianity, everything that exists is good. Evil is not a substance; it is a lack of goodness. For God to do evil would thus actually be a diminishment of His Being. This is why the idea of the Supremely Perfect Being doing something evil is an impossibility.
God is not “missing out” on anything by always doing what is good and perfect. Rather, if God were to do something evil, this would show a lack of being and thus show that He is not God. Divine omnipotence and Divine Goodness are in no way incompatible. In fact, they are inextricably interconnected aspects of what it means to say that God is the Supremely Perfect Being.