Have you known many believers who can't seem to grasp the omniscient god thing?
An omniscient god cannot have emotions. For example, if you came home to find that your spouse has been having an affair. You would become angry or sad because it is new information, something you've now learned. If you had all knowledge there would be nothing for you to learn, you would have known everything for as long as you existed. An emotional, omniscient, god nullifies itself. So, an omniscient god, repentant of previous actions, that eventually destroys everything in a flood because of anger is ridiculous (Genesis 6:6). This would be like feigning surprise at a surprise birthday party that you threw for yourself and then wrecking the place in a fit of anger because it turned out EXACTLY the way you knew it would.
Geologists before 1800 were creationists and devout Christians who believed that the rocks they were studying were deposits of Noah’s flood. But by 1840, they had completely rejected the idea of a global flood because the rock record clearly didn't support the idea. In other words, a global flood never happened and around 1840 geologists were forced to accept that fact.
The problem for believers is that the Biblical character Jesus believed in the Noah's Ark story - Matthew 24:37-39.
I asked a "pastor" to explain why god commands Noah to take 2 of each bird on the ark in Genesis 6:20, then commands him to take 7 pairs of birds in Genesis 7:3. Here is his answer: "7 is gods perfect number, so in this case 7 is actually meaning 2, the perfect number for Noah to take on the ark." However, when I asked why didn't Noah take only 2 of each clean animal when god commands him to take 7 pairs (Genesis 7:2), He said, "Oh no, they were to be used as food and sacrifice". I wasn't about to get into the fact that the carnivores would have taken out most of the animals within the first few weeks of debarkation.
For an omniscient god, it certainly doesn't know much.
National Center for Science Education: [ncse.com]
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11 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Yes!! I've noticed this too! They spout claims of omnipresence, omnipotence, all-knowing, time independence, yet have no idea what those claims are supposed to mean.
For example, all-knowing and time independent would mean that when he created you, he knew what you were going to do and could make you differently, but didn't. Thereby totally negating the idea of free will.
As Jeff Dunham's "Peanut" would say, "NeeeYowwww"!!!
Normanbites
Level 7
Sep 3, 2019
1
Yes, and holy books bring it to the point of insanity. Religion has been correctly called: Induced insanity.
I touch on this here: "I noticed that believers (actually those who con believers) have come out with a new movie: ..."
I never feel like I have to proof that God doesn’t exist. He or she never made sense to me and the Fairytales being told about him were just that, Fairytales.
SiegHardt
Level 3
Sep 3, 2019
4
You wouldn't have to prove a god, Bigfoot, leprechaun, etc. exists. The person making the assertion must prove the assertion:
A god is not defined by reality or existence, believers make the assertion that it is, the god makes no assertion whether it exists or not, it is therefore the believer who must then prove the assertions they make. If someone tells you that a god or Bigfoot hates, or loves something, or even exists, THEY would be responsible to prove those assertions.
"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." - Douglas Adams
@nogod4me I AM THAT I AM the alleged geebush jeehobah yhwh ghostholes sayeth : " not a respector of persons" ....let us all "moon" believers and their bibles as we: "shew him mine hind parts"
You do offer some very interesting points to ponder. I once asked one of those 'pastor' people a similar question. I'd always been told that God is perfection in all things. Therefore, God has no ego. And without ego, then why the hell would He ever want us to worship him? Based on that alone, it leads me to rationally believe that religion is nothing but a con game.
TimothyIII
Level 5
Sep 3, 2019
3
Yes, of course, like the excuses of the "Pastor" I spoke with: "7 is gods perfect number, so in this case 7 is actually meaning 2" but changes when 7 pertains to clean animals, then it is actually meaning 7.
An odd bit of trivia around the number 7. There are 7 colours in a rainbow, right? Wrong, take another look. (bring out your old Pink Floyd album if you need to). There are only 6, Indigo and violet are just shades of purple but Newton thought that 6 was the devil's number and so he made it 7 colours.
273kelvin
Level 8
Sep 3, 2019
3
Omniscience counters emotionality? Y'all ain't reading enough Lovecraft.
Hicks66
Level 7
Sep 2, 2019
2
Yes, H. P. Lovecraft, one of my favorites.
"We all know that any emotional bias - irrespective of truth or falsity - can be implanted by suggestion in the emotions of the young, hence the inherited traditions of an orthodox community are absolutely without evidential value.... If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them. The fact that religionists do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction." -- H P Lovecraft
Since you are a fan of Lovecraft, you may like Tim Curran's books: Hive and Hive 2: The Spawning.
The write-up describes it as: "The Author Tim Curran presents the stunning sequel to H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness."
I enjoyed them and thought you may also.
I was taught that "omniscient" means all-knowing, and "omnipotent" means all-powerful. Most people who call themselves Christian don't seem to be comfortable with those concepts. They continually place limitations on their god, assuming their personal intervention is necessary to help their god with his homework.
BitFlipper
Level 8
Sep 2, 2019
1
They who live within the confines of the fairy tales can not recognize contradictions, nor experience cognitive dissonance regarding the stories, because they have been trained not to see such things. It is as if they are living in "Flat World", and can not imagine lifting off the plane of the paper.
BirdMan1
Level 8
Sep 2, 2019
1
The problem here is that you are anthropomorphizing god. So any logical parallels you draw from human experience do not necessarily apply to god. It’s a dead end.
indirect76
Level 7
Sep 2, 2019
0
Actually, believers and their Bible are anthropomorphizing their god, I was pointing out that mistake. Yes, it is a dead end.
I think if you know about something does not mean you do not have feelings about it. However, a god who permits something like a natural disaster might not have feelings about it.
dare2dream
Level 7
Sep 2, 2019
1
I believe the Christian reply is that god gave humans freewill to obey or disobey, which (in their rational (sic)) means god could be disappointed in humans.
CallMeDave
Level 8
Sep 2, 2019
0
An All-knowing god would already know the actions that it's creation would commit. It would have been disappointed with them before it created them.
@nogod4me an all knowing dog would know my head hurts
JimG:
@CallMeDave dogs know things.
@TheMiddleWay That is just nonsense.
Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent:
All-knowing , All-powerful, All-present
Prescient: having or showing knowledge of events before they take place. This would pertain to a god myth, but omniscience would encompass and surpass this to ALL-KNOWING.
You are trying to conflate reality with ideology, while making up nonsensical scenarios.
@TheMiddleWay I don't care if you post thousands of pages of nonsense. I have been talking to you within the context of this post that I have written. And I have been talking about a god that is considered by its worshippers as omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. You have done nothing but try to confuse and convolute the word omniscient to a insane degree. You have professed yourself to be omniscient in this context, which is insane.
Don't talk to me any more, but feel free to tell everyone you meet that you are omniscient.
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