Orthodox--
Perhaps there has been some sort of misunderstanding. I think you are actually agreeing with our trinity, though you may not realize it. Here is the "trinity" once again:
1) God is all powerful
2) God does not want evil to exist
3) Evil exists
*these three statements cannot all be true simultaneously.
Now, here is what you seem to be arguing:
1) A rational being like God cannot possibly be able to "do anything" because He has to be consistent with Himself and it is impossible for Him to do bad, etc.
2) Let's make the definition of "all powerful" mean "the ability to do anything, except some things (like contradicting one's self)".
3) This way, we can still say "God is all powerful".
Orthodox, in no way does this reasoning disagree with our trinity. As I have said numerous times, by "all powerful" I mean "the ability to do anything--including things that are illogical/impossible/contradictory". You have made a strong argument as to why the first part of the trinity is false (God is all powerful), and the other two are correct (God is all good, evil exists). Great! You agree that not all three of the statements are true--and I agree with you.
Orthodox said:
The Christian belief, as supported by Scripture (Heb 6:18 - "it is impossible for God to lie"), is that God is subject to his own rational self-consistency. The laws of logic we have discovered are essentially of the immutable rationality of God (People occasionally say that Aristotle invented logic but if you will think about that idea for a moment it reveals its flaws).
Right-- God cannot lie, He cannot do anything. There are some things that are not within his power, he is not all powerful.
Im going to assume that by symantics you mean semantics (perhaps just a difference of spelling between Australia and America) the scientific study of the meanings of words and their development.
No, no difference, I spelled it wrong. :lol:
I contest that this is in fact the most debatable part of the trinity.
I contest that there is nothing to debate--it has been made clear what we mean all along. By our definition, if God does not have the ability to do certain things (like lie, contradict himself, be illogical) he is not "all powerful". Once again, let's not debate over semantics.
The trinity, as posited by Ceridwen and yourself is as follows:
- god is all powerful
- evil exists in the world
- god does not want evil to exist
This really contains a forth part, which goes:
- Therefore God is either not all-powerful or does not object to evil.
Or, evil does not exist.
If we accept that a god, who is all-powerful can do anything, then the trinity does stand. But, if it can be shown that being all-powerful does not mean the ability to do anything, then the trinity is lame and has never stood.
You have yet to show that the words "all powerful" do not mean "the ability to do anything", you have merely argued that it is impossible for God to be able to "do anything", which only supports what we have been saying-- that not all three statements of the trinity can be true.
Even if you do show that the words all-powerful do not mean the ability to do anything, you are just nitpicking at word choice--not meaning. Ceridwen could change the first part of the trinity to "1) God can do anything" and the original meaning, which we have made clear from the start, would still be the same as it has always been. I have stated many times throughout this thread that in the trinity "all powerful" is meant to mean the ability to do literally anything, including that which is illogical or contradictory or evil. You have made great arguments as to why God cannot do things that are illogical or contradictory, but this does not in any way disagree with what we mean by this trinity.
You might remember my first posts about the heavy stone problem. In these I endeavoured to demonstrate the less-than-all-powerfulness required in God for to be able to do anything (as in everything). I realise that as we have neared the heart of the debate (IE. What constitutes all-powerful) some things have become muddled and misrepresented (I dealt with this at the end of my second last post).
Now that I have posited Gods rational self-consistency (and thus, his affinity with the rules of logic) I will defend it and show the less-than-all-powerfulness required for him to be anything else. This will also hopefully show that an all-powerful God is necessarily rationally self-consistent.
A "God", if existent, is the first cause of everything. Whether you say that logic comes from the Christian God or an Alpha God or from whatever there must be this first cause with which transcendental laws (IE. truth and goodness) exist. It is a fact that truth (which is always logical) and goodness are infinite and untruth and badness finite. I have shown this in previous arguments and will only skim the surfaces of these now. Truth is what truth is, Goodness is what goodness is. Untruth is whatever truth is not, badness is whatever goodness is not. It can be demonstrated that untruth and badness are finite contingent things by the fact that truth (and goodness) relies upon what is truth just as untruth also relies upon what is truth, making untruth subject to truth and therefore a contingent, not a necessary, thing. Truth is necessarily existent, it cannot not exist, even if there is nothing to tell an untruth. Like I have said previously, if there was nothing in existence it would still be true that there is nothing in existence. What does this mean? Truth is infinite in nature, uncaused, and bound only to itself. It cannot not exist. Does the fact that it cannot not exist and cannot not be truthful make it less than infinite? I think this would be a faulty conclusion to draw, similar to saying an unbeatable soccer player is not unbeatable because he cannot beat himself - beating himself would only make him beatable.
You are essentially saying in your argument that, if God were all powerful he would be able to contradict logic.
No, I have said all along that if God can contradict logic, He is either not all good or evil doesn't exist. The meaning is what is important, not word choice (though I do not see how 'all powerful' is construed to mean 'cannot do anything, but can still do a lot') and I have made the meaning clear form the beginning.
Christians say that God is a rationally self-consistent and all-powerful being (amongst other things). As a necessary being he is logically existent, and the logical laws used to find this stem from his rational self-consistent nature. (There is a lot of other evidence to support the necessity of a rationally self-consistent God if you want, I can prove this later). If he were to say that A is non-A then he would be going against his own nature and the all-powerful God would be beaten by himself and, as such, would never in fact have been all-powerful.
I think this demonstrates my point that all-powerfulness cannot mean the ability to do anything.
No, all this demonstrates is that God cannot have the ability to do anything. If you like saying "God is all powerful" then you can change the meaning of the words to mean "the ability to do anything other than that which is evil, contradictory, or illogical". It doesn't matter--we still agree, Orthodox!
If indeed we do accept your definition of all-powerful then your trinity is correct.
My point exactly.
Prove through logic and analogy the truth of your definition before you come back positing such a statement again.
Let's consider your definition of "all powerful" first: according to what I have read so far, your definition of all powerful would be "the ability to do everything that one has the ability to do". This definition is inherently meaningless and gets us nowhere. We use words to describe certain aspects of things we would otherwise not know....no knowledge is gained by saying "God has the ability to do anything He has the ability to do".
Here is how I got my definition:
http://dictionary.reference.com/
all, adj: Being or representing the entire or total number
powerful, adj: Having or capable of exerting power
power, n: A specific capacity, faculty, or aptitude
God does not have the capacity/faculty/power to do a bunch of things (contradict Himself, go against logic, commit evil). There are powers which He cannot exert. Hence, He is not
all powerful.
Honestly, this trinity thing has been around for thousands of years (Epicurus invented it). If it were actually worth its salt it would have destroyed religion thousands of years ago. As it is, most of the Great Atheists (B. Russell for example) had to abandon it when it failed to stand up against scrutiny.
First of all, ours is a little different. Secondly, I disagree--I think a million poor arguments can overwhelm a few good ones. Thirdly, Christianity has had 2,000 years to spread...you need to give atheism a little more time
The trinity has never stood.
Nope--still standing.