God can't Lie

[AWsmith82]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

 

[ManTimeForgot]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

A "clever" cosmologist might point out that an all powerful being might make anything it says true by virtue of merely "thinking it."

A "clever" epistemologist might point out that an omniscient with a perfect will would be able to justify anything.

A "clever" logician might point out that a wholly transcendent being is beyond attribution and thus any statements (including to lie) are all ultimately false.



If this were a limited being, then you would be correct, but the problem we mere mortals have is that we are ultimately grasping at straws when it comes to infinities and absolutes. We don't have any experience with infinite faculties of any kind nor absolutes that aren't self-referential in nature or limited to certain systems with axiomatic components (A=A is a good example of an "absolute" of this kind).

Not that I actually think this is an adequate defense of "God," mind you. A deity is merely an ET with an interventionist ethic and supernatural is flat impossible (either it is real or it isn't).

MTF

 

[gnomon]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

This is assuming that humanity is incapable of lying to itself. The greatest HaHa our collective conscious has given us.

There once was a movie in which it was stated that the greatest lie the Devil ever told was that he didn't exist.

I think the subject is incorrect in that statement.

edit: A bit harsh I now but given my current mood I'm unimpressed with the theistic philosophy of nature at the moment. A rather restrictive and wholly unimaginative view which relies more on perpetrating cultural mores, often outdated, rather than progressing wisdom.

Or too many damn beers.

 

[Nadia Faiazova]

Hi! Of course, God is powerful and almighty. But the lie itself comes when you want to cheat others. God is not that. So, God uses his powerfulness only for obedient people's good.

 

[Thief]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

'Capable' seems the pivot point of your question.

Could He lie?....and if so...to whom?....and why?
Would the lie take physical form?....as a spoken word of a Creator might do so.

There has been a thread about lying.
But it leaned more to deceit, rather than creation.

Should we not clarify?...before proceeding further.

 

[cablescavenger]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

God lies in the Bible, pretty much from the start.

 

[atanu]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

Can we see the exact reference or the passage in question?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie.

Reference and quote your source.

 

[PolyHedral]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie.

Who says so?

 

[Caladan]

I read in a Catholic apologetics book that God is incapable of a lie. Does that not then contradict his all powerfulness? For if you can do all and everything, you certainly can lie right?

If there is a God I imagine he reflects the physical qualities of the world, I don't think he is a sterile bearded cherub with a harp.
he would be much more exciting, as earthquakes and lightning storms are.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

If there is a God I imagine he reflects the physical qualities of the world, ...

I am reminded of an experiment I read about some time in the past. Playing cards were flashed on a screen and the person was asked to call out the name of the card: "Jack of Hearts" ... "Three of Clubs" ... "Nine of Daimonds" ... etc. Sequencing speed was adjusted so that the person was just able to comfortably keep up.

At this point, bogus cards were randomly introduced, cards such as a red Seven of Spades. Almost invariably the subject would coerce the card into something that matched his or her presuppositions. Often the red Seven of Spades would be 'seen' as a Seven of Hearts. Sometimes the red Seven of Spades would be 'seen' as a [black] Seven of Spades. Rarely did the subject balk at what was being shown.