God’s Level of Effort

[Willum]

Please read entire post before answering. There is a larger context, and I don’t wish to discuss the obvious or banal.

Many claims are made about what God does and does not do.
God allows freewill, for example.
God will not force people.
God will forgive the repentant, no matter the sin.
God gave Samson strength.
God can do anything.

It is the last that this topic is concerned with. The level of effort.
With the assumption that God is all powerful, than anything it can or cannot do poses the same level of effort for it (does it?). So blackening a star would be as difficult or possible as swatting a fly (right?).

So what determines significance or what God will or won’t do?
Why does freewill rate among the billions of other things that could allow?
Why does physically stopping a rape not rate or other evils not rate?
Or stopping the Apple from being bit?

From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?
If all powerful, then aren’t any actions or inactions.by it arbitrary? Even meaningless?
Why /why not?

[brunumb]

[Replying to Willum in post #1]

God has never demonstrated any of the traits attributed to him. They are all based on what human beings think a god should do or should be able to do. They simply project their expectations onto a being of their own creation. Whenever there is a conflict between what God is expected to do and what he allegedly has done, people suddenly have an amazing insight into the mind of God and explain away those conflicts on his behalf. Of course we never get any of that first hand.

[Miles]

Please read entire post before answering. There is a larger context, and I don’t wish to discuss the obvious or banal.

Many claims are made about what God does and does not do.
God allows freewill, for example.
God will not force people.
God will forgive the repentant, no matter the sin.
God gave Samson strength.
God can do anything.

It is the last that this topic is concerned with. The level of effort.
With the assumption that God is all powerful, than anything it can or cannot do poses the same level of effort for it (does it?). So blackening a star would be as difficult or possible as swatting a fly (right?).

So what determines significance or what God will or won’t do?
Why does freewill rate among the billions of other things that could allow?
Why does physically stopping a rape not rate or other evils not rate?
Or stopping the Apple from being bit?

From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?
If all powerful, then aren’t any actions or inactions.by it arbitrary? Even meaningless?
Why /why not?

Assuming there's a god as you've described.

"With the assumption that God is all powerful, than anything it can or cannot do poses the same level of effort for it (does it?). So blackening a star would be as difficult or possible as swatting a fly (right?)."
I assume by "blackening a star" you mean to stop it from "burning." In any case, my guess is that an omnipotent god would find both acts to be equally easy.

"So what determines significance or what God will or won’t do?"
Prior cause/effect determinants that cause him to act as he does.

Why does freewill rate among the billions of other things that could allow?
Taking a guess as to what you mean by "rate," because people have a need to believe it exists

Why does physically stopping a rape not rate or other evils not rate?
What do you mean by "rate"?

Or stopping the Apple from being bit?
Same question

From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?
God allows floods because they please him. And, he doesn't prevent evils because he creates them, or so the Bible says. And it wouldn't make sense to prevent one's creation.

If all powerful, then aren’t any actions or inactions.by it arbitrary? Even meaningless?
Why /why not?
They're not arbitrary because they're the end result of all the determining factors that lead up to the moment of the action. The action can't be any different than it is. It HAS to occur. As for being meaningless, this would depend on the value it's been accorded.

[JehovahsWitness]

From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?

Biblically because His purpose has and will always be to allow humans to exercise the gift of free will, that is to make personal choices as to how they will behave and to face the consequences of their choice.


JW

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

FREE WILL, PERMISSION OF EVIL and ... RESPONSIBILITY

[Difflugia]

God has never demonstrated any of the traits attributed to him. They are all based on what human beings think a god should do or should be able to do. They simply project their expectations onto a being of their own creation.

I'm not even sure it's based on what people would naturally think a god should do, but somewhere along the line, the hyperbolic praise of the Psalms became understood to be literally true. "You're the only god for us because you're so powerful" became "you're the only god that has ever existed and you're omnipotent."

A god that has to call a meeting with the other gods to brainstorm about how to deal with an arrogant king is not an omniscient, omnipotent being that could prevent evil even if he or she wanted to.

[Miles]

From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?

Biblically because His purpose has and will always be to allow humans to exercise the gift of free will, that is to make personal choices as to how they will behave and to face the consequences of their choice.

Unfortunately, I guess, there's no such thing as free will, so it's not something that was ever gifted to us. Free will is an illusion, rigorously championed by Christians so as to save their concept of sin and salvation.


.

[bjs1]

[Replying to Willum in post #1]

One question: When you write about a God who can do anything, are you including logically impossible actions?

To put it another way: Should this omnipotent Being be able to create a stone so heavy that even He can’t lift it? Or is that a non-sense question because it asks God to do the logically impossible?

[1213]

...
From the perspective of “God can do anything,” why does God do things like the flood, but not prevent evils?
If all powerful, then aren’t any actions or inactions.by it arbitrary? Even meaningless?
Why /why not?

I believe the reason why God allows evil things to happen is that people wanted to know evil. That is why people were expelled to this “Matrix”, to have a lesson. Luckily this is only a short lesson.

Maybe they are meaningless to you, not to me.

[Willum]

[Replying to JehovahsWitness in post #4]

You missed the point.
Freewill to it would be the same level of effort to your God as anything else.
Allowing freewill is the same as allowing a star to burn.
So how do you distinguish?

[Willum]

[Replying to 1213 in post #8]

You have also, apparently, not read the entire post, or did not understand it.