Is There a God?

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The abstractions believed by sophisticated adults often include the omni words. That is, God is said to be omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere at once), and omnibenevolent (all good). He is also said to be the first cause of the universe, its unmoved mover and sustainer, and the source of human notions of good and evil. Overall, he is the unlimited Supreme Being.

But the problem with defining God in the abstract is that many of these abstractions make no sense, or are unknowable. Thus if God is the Supreme Being, he isn’t merely superior to us, he is totally superior: the best there is now, ever was, and ever will be. But how could anyone know that? A person would have to know everything that is now, ever was, and ever will be in order to be certain that nothing better could be found.  

To the extent the abstractions might make some sense, they tend to contradict other abstractions that are also believed. Take the idea of God’s omniscience. It contradicts his omnipotence. This is because if God is all knowing he knows the future, absolutely. He knows everything that will happen. And this means that everything will happen as he knows it. Which means he can’t change anything. But if he can’t change anything, he isn’t all powerful. Yet if he can change the future, then he isn’t all knowing. Both can’t be true.

In the face of the abstract god of theologians, then, the best response is agnosticism, where one declares that one doesn’t know what people are talking about when they talk about God. Believers are making no sense and therefore there is nothing to say, pro or con. God is just an incoherent concept.