“Omnipotence and
Omniscience”
In order to evaluate the validity of Dawkins’ argument, let’s
put it in the form of a syllogism.
If God is
omniscient, He knows everything that will happen
If God is
omnipotent, he has the power to change the course of historyGod’s omniscience means He cannot change the course of history if He already knows that history
Therefore, omniscience and omnipotence are mutually incompatible
In order for
an argument to be valid, the conclusion must follow deductively from the
premises. In this case, Dawkins would appear to have a valid argument. However,
just because an argument is valid, that does not mean its conclusion is true.
It simply means the argument has good form. What has to hold in order for an
argument to be valid and have a true conclusion is that the premises must be
true and the conclusion must deductively follow from those premises. Here is an
example of a valid argument with a false conclusion:
All humans
have two eyes
Bill only
has one eyeTherefore Bill is not human
The form of
this argument is good. The conclusion logically follows from the premises.
However, we know that the conclusion is false. Why? What is wrong with this
argument? The problem is located in the first premise. It is not true that all
humans have two eyes. Some humans lose an eye while others may be born with
only one eye. This fact does not make one non-human.
Here is an
example of an invalid argument with a false conclusion:
All humans
have two eyesBill has two legs
Therefore Bill is not human
This
argument has a problem in that the conclusion does not follow from the
premises.
Here is an
example of an invalid argument with a true conclusion:
All humans
have brainsBill has two eyes
Therefore Bill is a human
Now, let’s return to Dawkins argument to see if his conclusion is true or false. Does God
know all that will happen? Yes He does. This is attested time and again in
Scripture. There is nothing hidden from God. Dawkins’ first premise is true.
What can we say about the second premise? Can God change the course of history?
At first glance, we may be tempted to answer in the affirmative. But before we
do, we must first examine what we mean by history. We understand history
to mean all phenomenon throughout the course of human existence from the beginning
to the end. Can God change the course or path of human history? If it is true
that nothing happens that God did not decree, and it is true that God is
unchanging, then it follows that God cannot change the course of human history
because unless God had decreed it, it would not exist in the first place.
All of human
history is the result of the decretive act of God
God’s
decretive acts cannot undergo changeTherefore, God cannot change the course of human history
This
argument is not only valid, its conclusion happens to be true as well. In fact, the
conclusion is necessarily true because 1) it follows from the premises, and 2)
both premises are true. When the conclusion of an argument deductively follows
from true premises, that conclusion is necessarily true.
Dawkins
makes a category error in how he understands omniscience and human history. In
addition, omnipotence does not mean God can do anything. For example, God
cannot lie. God cannot sin. God cannot tempt others to sin. God cannot stop
being God. Omnipotence means that God is powerful enough to do whatever God is
pleased to do. "All-powerful" means there is nothing God cannot do if He indeed wants to do it. The reason God cannot do certain things is that God cannot do
anything with which He is not pleased. In other words, God cannot act in a
way that is contrary to His holy nature. It would be a violation of God’s
nature for God to decree one thing and then do another. Therefore, God cannot
change the course of human history because He has previously decreed that such
a course be actualized before time began. The truth is that if God were not
omnipotent, He would not be able to guarantee that what He decrees will actualize
because something could take place beyond his power or ability to bring it to
pass. Moreover, if God were not omniscient, He would not know what to decree,
let alone how to bring it to pass. One would expect a man like Richard Dawkins
to be able to construct better arguments. It is at times shocking to observe how sinful
men employ the use of logic and reason in such unethical manners in order to
suppress the knowledge of God in nature, and in human conscience.
There is another issue here and that is that God is the creator of everything. When God made creation he made everything in it. It isn't that he just knows history, but he literally MADE history. God can't change who he is or what his perfect nature made. God doesn't have the power to change history... but then, neither do people, and that is devastating for freewill. As far as God's omnipotence goes, he has no power to change anything in a supposedly perfect creation.
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more!
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