Omnipotent or Benevolent
Despite my attempts to shut out the world through escapism, it’s impossible to avoid all the little glimpses, being so connected through all of the RSS feeds, news subscriptions, and social networking sites. Change.org is especially troublesome in how it keeps me abreast of all the travesties taking place all throughout the world, like child slavery being used to create chocolate, or the situation in Iran.
These travesties periodically lead me to a particular train of thought, but I don’t think I’ve ever expressed it publicly. On the question of gods’ existence, my answer remains a “maybe”, and even a “I hope so”, and I’ve even gone so far as to offer theoretical explanations as to the very nature of a god or gods.
In considering the nature of god or gods, we inevitably come to two questions:
- Are the gods all-knowing and/or all-powerful?
- Are the gods benevolent?
By my analysis, it is impossible for the answer to be “yes” to both of these questions. If the gods are all-knowing and all-powerful, then we often ask why they would allow tragedy and suffering? Some people answer that it is all part of a divine plan, beyond our understanding. And perhaps it is all for some greater good. But if this is true, then the gods cannot be said to be benevolent, because to be all-powerful and benevolent would preclude the allowance of suffering.
A world such as ours – where child slavery and the murder of innocents take place on a regular basis – cannot possibly be a reflection of a benevolent divinity. I am willing to accept that some grandiose plan for the universe would not necessarily be to the benefit of humanity, which is only a mote in a cosmic sea. But an all-powerful god or gods – meaning they have the power to stop travesty – cannot be said to be benevolent if they do not stop that travesty.
On the other hand – and this is the idea I am more likely to accept – is that to whatever extent god or gods exist physically or metaphysically, or any higher beings exist that have a hand in the proceedings of the universe, they are not all-powerful, not all-knowing, and are completely fallible.
And if the nature of the gods is more along the lines of what I suspect – that they are extensions of the human collective consciousness – then it makes sense that they would be imperfect.
Following this line of thinking not only allows me to reconcile the concept of conscious divinities with the reality of human suffering, but makes the god(s) seem more personable, more accessible. Because we have that in common – fallibility.
But to think that a god or gods could be both omnipotent and benevolent is to be completely delusional or intellectually lazy. They can be one or the other – or neither – but certainly not both.