Do you guys understand that God is lacking in the Super Power Department

[웃 910]

There are 3 Special Powers that religious people assume Allah has:

1) Omnipotence (All Powerful): Thank God I made it through the day. Praise God I didn't get pulled over last night. I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for God.

2) Omniscience (All Knowing): "Allah knows how many hairs are on our heads"....

3) Omni-benevolence (All Loving): He impregnated a woman, said it was His Son (also a God), and murdered His child by crucification/starvation/dehydration to prove how much He loves us (not sure why murdering your children proves you love something?) Hey Jessica, I love you so much I'm gonna murder my kid to remove all doubts!

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Take 1 of trillions of atrocities and you can explain why Allah does not have all 3 powers. For example, the Holocaust.

God is All Powerful / All Knowing (He cannot be All Loving because He allowed X many millions of innocent to be killed when He knew it would happen and He had the power to save millions of lives. He could have used His powers to prevent Hitler from being born, for example).

God is All Knowing / All Loving (He cannot be All Powerful in this scenario because this scenario implies that God knew Hitler would commit such heinous acts of genocide and loves us so much He wouldn't allow it. He would protect us if only He had the power to do so. This combination proves if He is All Knowing/Loving He cannot be All Powerful).

God is All Loving / Powerful (He cannot be All Knowing because He has the power to intervene and the loving heart to use his power of divine intervention to prevent such an atrocity as the Holocaust. But this scenario proves He just does not know what is going to happen in the future. Not a damn clue of what will happen 3 seconds from now...).

So pick 2 of the 3. Which 1 Super Power will you admit Allah does not have???

[Sofiyya 1,687]

There are 3 Special Powers that religious people assume Allah has:

1) Omnipotence (All Powerful): Thank God I made it through the day. Praise God I didn't get pulled over last night. I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for God.

2) Omniscience (All Knowing): "Allah knows how many hairs are on our heads"....

3) Omni-benevolence (All Loving): He impregnated a woman, said it was His Son (also a God), and murdered His child by crucification/starvation/dehydration to prove how much He loves us (not sure why murdering your children proves you love something?) Hey Jessica, I love you so much I'm gonna murder my kid to remove all doubts!

-----------------------------------------------

Take 1 of trillions of atrocities and you can explain why Allah does not have all 3 powers. For example, the Holocaust.

God is All Powerful / All Knowing (He cannot be All Loving because He allowed X many millions of innocent to be killed when He knew it would happen and He had the power to save millions of lives. He could have used His powers to prevent Hitler from being born, for example).

God is All Knowing / All Loving (He cannot be All Powerful in this scenario because this scenario implies that God knew Hitler would commit such heinous acts of genocide and loves us so much He wouldn't allow it. He would protect us if only He had the power to do so. This combination proves if He is All Knowing/Loving He cannot be All Powerful).

God is All Loving / Powerful (He cannot be All Knowing because He has the power to intervene and the loving heart to use his power of divine intervention to prevent such an atrocity as the Holocaust. But this scenario proves He just does not know what is going to happen in the future. Not a damn clue of what will happen 3 seconds from now...).

So pick 2 of the 3. Which 1 Super Power will you admit Allah does not have???

Islam doesn't teach that Jesus was crucified. It doesn't teach that Jesus is Allah's son, nor that he is divine.

Try again.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Sofiyya

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That God is beyond the OP's understanding is no surprise. Our favorite question to the Carmelite brothers was, "Can God create a rock so big that He can't move it." The usual answer was that God is not limited by the imagination of high school freshmen.

[웃 910]

Islam doesn't teach that Jesus was crucified. It doesn't teach that Jesus is Allah's son, nor that he is divine.

Try again.

This isn't about Jesus. This is about the Creator's super powers (Allah, God, Big Foot, The Guy Upstairs, whatever you want to call it)....Do you understand why the Creator cannot have all 3 powers?

[chri'stina 190]

Obviously we understand things much differently, because I don't agree with your whole assessment here. So no, I don't understand. And you don't understand why He could have all three.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Question:

Sometimes, an atheist or non-believer asks me this question and I am always left clueless as to how I could respond. The question is this: "If Allah is All-Powerful, could he create a rock that even He himself cannot lift?" Now the problem here is that if he can do such a thing, then he will not be All-Powerful as he cannot lift the rock. However, if He cannot do that then He is not All-Powerful because He cannot do a certain action. How can I go about responding to this question in a suitable and convincing way? I want to be able to address it directly rather than beat around the bush as is the norm with such questions.

Answer:

The question itself is invalid. It is similar to asking can 1 be equal 2. The very nature of 1 prevents it being equal to 2, otherwise it would not be 1. Thus to ask can God create a rock that He could not lift? (Maadhallah), is nonsensical, as God Almighty would not be God if that was the case, ie. If He could create a rock that He could not lift. In other words it is the proof of God Himself, the Unique, without partner, that He cannot create a thing that is greater than Himself otherwise He would not be God. This inability is the demand of the reality and essence of God. Such a questioner would also ask the similarly absurd question: Can God annihilate Himself? The question that remains is, then how can you say God is All-Powerful? The reply to which is, that to be All-Powerful does not necessitate that God can do such a thing that would negate His own essence and reality. We believe God is not in need of anything. He does not eat nor requires another thing for His existence. God sees and hears everything, yet He does that without the organs of eyes or ears. He sees and knows what every person, ant, nay, even atom in the universe is doing at every time, indeed, He is the One that gives it the power to do that. In fact if He wanted to create a billion universes of the same complexity and design as our universe, He merely has to will it and they will be created. When this is the case, is there anyone who realistically would sanely challenge Him being the All-powerful?

Mufti Mohammed Sajjad

Wallahu Aalam bis-sawab

Please remember us in your Duas...

The answer to this question is the opinion of the scholar and does not reflect the opinion of other scholars of As-Suffa Institute and As-Suffa Institute as an organisation.

 

Edited October 14, 2010 by ready4ONE

[웃 910]

Obviously we understand things much differently, because I don't agree with your whole assessment here. So no, I don't understand. And you don't understand why He could have all three.

Tell me how God can be All Powerful/Loving/Knowing, all 3 together?

I'm sure the Chilean miners are praising God for the miracle God pulled off today in saving their lives but it doesn't work the other way around when there are 1 million tragedies for every 1 miracle. Of course God's powers are not present when the tragedies occur but boy was God around for that miracle!

[chri'stina 190]

Tell me how God can be All Powerful/Loving/Knowing, all 3 together?

I'm sure the Chilean miners are praising God for the miracle God pulled off today in saving their lives but it doesn't work the other way around when there are 1 million tragedies for every 1 miracle. Of course God's powers are not present when the tragedies occur but boy was God around for that miracle!

Well, I don't believe we are robots that just do whatever God makes us do. I believe we are instructed to make good choices and guided spiritually but never forced into a decision. In that way, I don't believe God had to prevent Hitler's birth or every tragedy. I am satisfied with my beliefs right now. I don't see the conflict of the three.

[mawilson 2,133]

This isn't about Jesus. This is about the Creator's super powers (Allah, God, Big Foot, The Guy Upstairs, whatever you want to call it)....Do you understand why the Creator cannot have all 3 powers?

What I don't understand is why you're trying to apply logic to religion, when religious faith,

by definition, is irrational and requires a suspension of logic, critical thinking and common sense.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Tell me how God can be All Powerful/Loving/Knowing, all 3 together?

Heck, when my kids were young, they thought their father and I were all three.

[웃 910]

Tell me how God can be All Powerful/Loving/Knowing, all 3 together?

Well, I don't believe we are robots that just do whatever God makes us do. I believe we are instructed to make good choices and guided spiritually but never forced into a decision. In that way, I don't believe God had to prevent Hitler's birth or every tragedy. I am satisfied with my beliefs right now. I don't see the conflict of the three.

It is contradictory because God cannot be infinitely powerful, kind, and knowledgeable all together because He would use His foresight of the future (knowledge) and kindness and power to intervene into EVERY single tragedy to prevent it from occurring.

I'll give you an example. In this scenario you will have the knowledge, power, kind heart to prevent a tragedy from occurring. You are in front of your house, and you see a 9 year old boy in the middle of the street playing on his gameboy, with earplugs in his ears blasting music. You see an 18 wheeler coming head on with the 9 year old boy. The driver doesn't see the boy and the boy doesn't see the truck. You use your kind heart, knowledge of what will happen in the future, and power to run over there, pick him up, and move him out of the middle of the road. The truck passes by and the boy is fine. Without your intervention he would have been instantly killed.

Now give the same scenario but this time you are God. You still "supposedly" have the infinite kind heart, knowledge, and power. This time you sit at your front porch and simply WATCH the boy get crushed to death!!! How can you now say that God is infinitely kind/knowledgeable/powerful if He just sat and watched this event unfold without intervening? The only possible explanation is He was missing 1 of the 3 powers. Maybe He didn't have the power to intervene? Maybe He didn't know what was going to happen? Maybe He isn't so kind to use His power to save the boys life....

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Perhaps God not existing is the best answer to this question.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Perhaps God not existing is the best answer to this question.

God exists, even if only as a Creation of Man.

[HeatDeath 430]

When God created the world, He delegated all authority over it to Adam and Eve. When they sinned in Eden, they handed all of that authority over to either Satan, or the blind laws of physics, depending on your theology. Whichever you prefer, it wasn't a good thing.

Similarly, when God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai, He first spoke to all of the Israelites present. They begged and pleaded Moses to go up the mountain and deal with God directly and individually. They couldn't handle being directly in the presence of God. So they also abdicated the authority over Creation God initially delegated to humanity[, the powerful wielding of which was probably the initial purpose for creating the nation of Israel in the first place].

When Christians who believe this doctrine reclaim this authority (these are generally known as "charismatics", and exist in small numbers in all denominations) they can do some pretty remarkable things in the name of Jesus Christ.

But in general, God, while in principle omnipotent, is pretty hands off regarding earthly life. It's at our own request, and God finds the concept of violating that request repugnant. It's like how when your spouse, whom you love, asks to be left alone, if you love them, you respect that request, even if you know it's an irrational request caused by some psychological wounding that may even be their own fault.

He does work through charismatic Christians, even doing supernatural miracles through them. These tend not to make the evening news, but remarkable things are happening every day, especially in the third world. But He will not [yet] violate the general request of humanity to, generally speaking, leave us alone.

This is probably why God had to become a man in Jesus Christ - there was no other way to effect supernatural change involving Creation and humanity without usurping humanity's [admittedly mostly idle] authority over Creation without becoming, in a very meaningful sense, part of humanity.

The Book of Revelation describes what it will be like when God finally does revoke humanity's authority over Creation and intervene directly. The results aren't pretty.