omnibenevolence

A collection of 42 posts

God's characteristics

Can you even calculate a best possible world?

One of the arguments in my most recent book 30 Arguments Against the Existence of "God" concerns OmniGod creating this world, and that this world must be the best of all possible worlds. This is because OmniGod is constrained by his characteristic of being all-loving. In being omnibenevolent,

divine foreknowledge

God Is Love: Having a Loving Relationship with a Divine Automaton

I've just done a YouTube video discussing this and it's an interesting one. I will use my claim here that God does not have free will. See my following pieces: God's Own Free Will God's Supposed Free Will: He Cannot Be Contrary

divine foreknowledge

Heaven and Hell as a Hot Mess

Check out the latest interview, this time with Gnostic Informant. We discuss the philosophy of heaven and hell, carrying on the conversation started with another video interview I did with MythVision (also below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8AdHOGRbRI And the previous one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

fairness

'Your Idea of “Fair” Does Not Equal God’s Fairness'

After my post debating fairness with Paul Hoffer, another Catholic commenter, Jim Dailey, stated this rather problematic claim: I think your argument falls apart where you presume that your idea of “fair” = God’s fairness. You are a parent. Do you think you are “unfair” to one of your children?

Dave Armstrong

The Uneven Evidence Debate: Responding to Paul Hoffer

As I am sure you are aware by now, I have been embroiled in a debate with myself Dave Armstrong about the uneven apportioning of evidence to humanity over time and place. It moved more into the philosophical domain, so Armstrong invoked a comment from, one presumes, a more philosophical

God's characteristics

God Cannot Be Perfect Because Intrinsic Perfection Does Not Make Sense - REDUX

This has been brought up a number of times recently so I thought I would recycle some old posts on the topic. I am reposting this article as it is good to get previous writing seen by a new audience: So in a [not so-] recent post I was talking

classical theism

God's Own Free Will

I have written variously on this subject before but wanted to bring together two ideas: 1. God cannot have free will. 2. If he does, he could not have used it to create the world. Libertarian free will (as in the conscious and actual ability to choose otherwise in a

creation

William Lane Craig and Heaven

Recently, I wrote a few pieces on heaven with reference to William Lane Craig and how he has made claims about front-loading people who would reject Jesus (God using his Middle Knowledge to work this out) into those who, as it turns out with creation, never get to hear about

free will

Pearced Off! #7 - God Has No Free Will; This Is a Perfect World

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

consequentialism

God Is a Consequentialist. The Theist's Defence: God Is Not Moral (I)

I have written an essay that can be found variously on this site called "God Is a Consequentialist" in which I set out that God is a moral consequentialist. Some of which I will now set out or paraphrase before looking at the defence William Lane Craig and

omnibenevolence

OmniGod and Abuse

Let me start off with an internet meme: Today's subject of choice is the Problem of Evil. I will be using the notion of classical theism to represent God here; that being OmniGod, who is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. In the above image, the girl is questioning (quite

God's characteristics

Shaving the Christian God with Occam's Razor

The following piece was sent to me by my friend, who often goes by the moniker of Fellow Feather. Let me know what you think - it's right up my OmniGod alley... This will be published in the issue after next of Free Inquiry and maybe the next

divine foreknowledge

God: The Sick Creation of Man

I have posted this before, but the more I read it, the more like a poem it becomes, and the more powerful. It was not designed as a poem, but works well as one. It is written by a friend of mine who posts adverts in different places, including this

God's characteristics

Suffering and an Omnibenevolent God

Here is a guest post from C. Peterson who has recently been making some great contributions in commenting here. In this piece, he looks at the logical problem of evil (as opposed to the evidential problem of evil), suggesting some theodicies (such as the soul-building theodicy) and ideas like heaven

classical theism

God's Omni-qualities - Who Believes in Them?

I have written a number of posts concerning theism and God's omni-qualities, and have loosely classified this as classical theism (though it is worth noting that this can often include ideas such as being immutable). My ebook The Problem with "God": Classical Theism under the Spotlight

divine foreknowledge

Arguing the Toss over OmniGod. Why I Do It. And How.

I have been having a discussion with a commenter on a previous post concerning prayer in the light of an OmniGod (my preferred term for an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god). As many of you who have followed my blog, my writings and books will know, I spend a lot of

classical theism

But That's Not MY God!

This is an argument I have experienced a number of times, most notably at my God on Trial talks, but yesterday, on my piece on petitionary prayer, involving the notions of classical theism - God's omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolence. I wrote a book (The Little Book of Unholy

God's characteristics

Petitionary Prayer As, Well, Nonsense.

Petitionary Prayer, otherwise known as asking for stuff, is a bit of a problem for the classical notion of God. If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, then we have some issues. If God knows all future events, then we have a serious breakdown in coherence. Let me start off

determinism

God: Can He Choose His Own Qualities? Can He Commit Suicide?

The idea of libertarian free will is a contentious one, but let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it exists, because that is the general position of most theists. There is a prevailing idea that if things are great, then they are great-making properties. If they are

God's characteristics

Heaven, Hell, and Philosophical Zombies

In the a google hangout  from a few years back, with Counter Apologist and Reasonable Doubts' Justin Schieber on the Evidential Problem of Evil, we were talking about the great argument against hell. I will set this argument out again, as I have done previously, before getting on to

consequentialism

God Is A Moral Consequentialist!!

Here is an essay that I wrote some time ago, raising points that William Lane Craig has failed to deal with. This one comes up an awful lot in my discussions on morality. See what you think. See this and other such pieces in my reasonably priced ebook: The Problem

creation

Hell & God Creating this World Defeated; Bradley vs William Lane Craig

This is taken from an old post of mine. I still find it a real defeater for the concept of hell. I have just listened to Ray Bradley debate William Lane Craig. I heard this several years ago but didn't really pay it close attention. This time round

fairness

Is Everyone's Free Will Exactly Equal?

Anyone who has frequented my blog in the past or who is cognisant of my writing will know that I deny Libertarian Free Will (LFW) - just search my categories to the right for more information. This question was sent to me by a friend, and I think it is

COVID crisis

God Loves Abortion!!

God Loves Abortion! Or it is necessary for foetuses to die for a greater good. Well that's certainly one of the conclusions that must come from the statistics for natural, spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages; abortions that God has the power to stop, and seemingly designed in to the

God's characteristics

The Problem with "God" - a reminder

This is just a reminder that I have a new ebook available called: The Problem with "God". My new ebook is available now on Kindle, Nook and Kobo. James A. Lindsay (Dot, Dot, Dot: Infinity Plus God Equals Folly) kindly wrote a foreword to support the project. The