Sheratan Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 One of the arguments that drove me to atheism is the logical inconsistency of attributes that people apply to the christian god (esp. omniscience and omnibenevolence). But is there (clear) biblical support for the omniscience? The reason for my question is that when I presented the argument of the inconsistency of omniscience and free will to a fundie family member, she denied the omniscience and I was unprepared to slap her holy book in her face I heard people refer to the "alpha and omega" verse in Rev. 1:8 but I find it very unclear and open to a meriad of interpretations. I searched online bibles for the text "foreknowledge" and only found Acts 2:23 and 1 Peter 1:2, but in neither verse I read actual omniscience. It might just as well be explained as "purpose". Does anyone here know of other clearer verses? Thanx, Sheratan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mythra Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. But, we have a problem. Just before God drowns the world in the great flood, he expresses regret that he had ever made man. Genesis 6 says he was sorry he had ever created man, and it grieved him in his heart. Did mankind's wickedness surprise him somehow? Did it catch him off guard? Or, did he know from the beginning that in a short while he would be drowning every living thing on the face of the earth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheratan Posted January 23, 2007 Author Share Posted January 23, 2007 Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much. But, we have a problem. Just before God drowns the world in the great flood, he expresses regret that he had ever made man. Genesis 6 says he was sorry he had ever created man, and it grieved him in his heart. Did mankind's wickedness surprise him somehow? Did it catch him off guard? Or, did he know from the beginning that in a short while he would be drowning every living thing on the face of the earth? Exacly, or even creating Adam and Eve knowing full well that they would disobey an illogical order and still punishing them for it... Thanx! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Exactly, or even creating Adam and Eve knowing full well that they would disobey an illogical order and still punishing them for it... That's the problem with Christians; they don't understand that the God of the Jews is not the same as the God of the Christians. The OT God developed from a tribal style god, and Yahweh was just one in a whole pantheon. They were polytheists to begin with, but only one "god" won out in the political and/or religious arena (Essakhaia or whatever his name was). So the early scriptures have a non-omniscient god, and he's full of emotions and faults just like humans, and later it develops into some mish-mash-god with attributes from all the different gods in the pantheon. Then even later the RCC mixed it up with the Greek philosophy ideas of God. It's a God-view under constant revision and development and right now we are facing the beta release of version 392.5 and no one is waiting for SP1 on this one because there is a conflict between his omniscience and benevolence that can't be resolved, so heck, why not write a new version of God. I think we need an open source god under the GNU license... Oh, Holy Gnu, servant of the Almighty Duh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 It's a God-view under constant revision and development and right now we are facing the beta release of version 392.5 and no one is waiting for SP1 on this one because there is a conflict between his omniscience and benevolence that can't be resolved, so heck, why not write a new version of God. I think we need an open source god under the GNU license... Oh, Holy Gnu, servant of the Almighty Duh. That's beautiful! Open-source dieties! He's always kind of been that way but I think with the Church buying it up, it's like Novell buying Suse. You can get the software for free, but in order to get the benefits of their support you have to buy a maintaince license through them. Actually though, the RCC would have been more like Microslop, gobbling up and Borgifying all the other programs and calling it theirs. When you go with their solution, you can't use any other god or you'll be excommunicated from their support contracts. You see, yet more evidence how God is a product of human creation. Techno-Lord ver. 3.0., available for an annual fee of 10% of your gross income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 So which Operating System would one use? The Theistic OS or the Non-theistic OS? (Watch out for MicroChurch ©) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheratan Posted January 25, 2007 Author Share Posted January 25, 2007 It's a God-view under constant revision and development and right now we are facing the beta release of version 392.5 and no one is waiting for SP1 on this one because there is a conflict between his omniscience and benevolence that can't be resolved, so heck, why not write a new version of God. I think we need an open source god under the GNU license... Oh, Holy Gnu, servant of the Almighty Duh. We don't have an open source god, but we have a free (as in speech, not as in beer) church, the Chruch of Emacs, with Richard Stallman (a.k.a. St. iGNUcius as the saint. In a speech he answered the question "is the vi editor evil in the Church of Emacs". He replied that "vi-vi-vi" is the editor of the beast... Cheers, Rob (a vi fan ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 That's funny! I love vi too. Haven't used it in a while though, the MS curse... Hmm... Would belief in Gnu make you a Gnusticist? And what would the Agnustics say in all this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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