Topics Religion

Question Most Christians would agree that God is perfect. She is the ultimate: Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent. Most Christians (and most people) would agree that humans are imperfect. Surely the mere act of a perfect being (God) creating an imperfect being (humans) is an act of imperfection in itself. In other words; how is it possible for a perfect entity to create something less than perfect? I’m sure my logic has flaws in it (that’s what happens when you’re imperfect), but I just can’t seem to see it; whether that’s because I’m not able to or just because I don’t want to, I’m not sure. Any comments would be appreciated.

Accepted:
August 17, 2007

Comments

It's a nice question. But let me ask another. Are you saying that it would have been better if God had not created creatures like us -- less than perfect beings?

Suppose you think, as many theologians do, that there can be at most one perfect being. Then if God is going to create anything at all, s/he will have to create creatures that are less than perfect. And suppose you also think, as many theologians also do, that all things considered, it's a good thing for there to be creatures who can make free decisions, engage in moral effort, and love God and one another. That might be reason enough for a perfect being to create us. It may be that a truly perfect being wouldn't leave Reality populated by Itself alone.

Whether the facts of the world really are compatible with the existence of a perfect being, of course, is a vexed and much-discussed question. Many people have argued that there's just too much evil for perfect-being theology to be plausible. But it's not immediately clear that only a less-than perfect being would create other less-than-perfect beings.