... at least a being who is responsible for our creation.
I'll illustrate this in 3 points.
1. God apparently flooded the world because everyone was evil in their actions and thoughts
2. If god is all knowing, he knew how his creation was going to turn out and understood the consequences of his actions when creating this world
3. If god was all powerful, he could have created it in such a way that people weren't evil and he didn't need to kill them all.
If god knows how its all going to turn out and he knew every choice/thought you have before he created you, and he had the power to do it differently, it's only reasonable to assume that "free will" is an illusion of choice. If he already knows, then its already decided.
That is, if he existed.
Hi Dan
I didn't want to enter into this debate other than to make a couple of points regarding definitions and assumptions.
i am christian but I think that the later christian movements created logical problems when they adopted the concept of omnipotence as a God who can do "ALL" things, even illogical things.
IF actual omnipotence means that a being has all power that a being of that type CAN have (but it cannot do ALL things, then this relieves them of certain logical problems).
Using creation as an example : Though early Judeo-Christian literature speaks of material creation from chaotic matter, later Christian movements adopted the model of "creation out of nothing". This creates problems of logic and coherence with certain scientific principles (e.g. conservation of matter/mass)
Similarly, the adoption of the later christian theory that God creates mankind out of "nothing" creates moral and philosophical problems. IF God creates an individual out of "nothing", then he is responsible for all characteristics that the individual has (including the individuals tendency to do evil). However, early judeo-Christian literature describes their belief that individual spirits had an eternal existence (just as all other types of matter had prior existence) and thus God did not create the matter that makes up spirit. In fact Pistis Sophia describes this spirit as "self willed matter".
the point is that if the spirits of mankind had an independent existence of some sort, then the onus of evil can be shifted to them. IF, God created mankind out of nothing, then there is nothing to be done about the dilemma and God is responsible for evil that his creation has.
I wish christianity had never adopted "creation out of nothing" and had not adopted the silly notion of illogical omnipotence where God can do absolutely anything that can be imagined (including creating himself...).
Good luck coming to your own models of how these principles relate.
Clear
ειφυφιω