Topics Religion

Question Perhaps a semantic quibble, perhaps a more deeply-rooted consideration.... Why is the Deity so frequently portrayed as "all-"powerful, "all-"knowing, etc. Is there some really fundamental reason why the Deity cannot be "very" powerful" and know "quite a bit indeed"?

Accepted:
March 25, 2020

Comments

One of the philosophical

One of the philosophical roots for identifying divine attributes is the idea that God (if there is a God) is maximally excellent or (in language going back to St. Anselm) God is a being greater than which cannot be conceived. Advocates of this way of thinking are sometimes described as advancing perfect being theology. They ask: what would be more excellent a being that knows a great deal or an omniscient being? a being that is very powerful or one that is omnipotent? It is through this line of reasoning, that it is held that God (if God exists) exists necessarily (rather than contingently), God is maximally good (rather than sort of good) or worthy of worship (rather than worthy of admiration). Interesting disputes arise over different attributes. For example, some philosophers think that a maximally excellent being would be eternal in the sense of not being temporal (on this view, temporality may be a creation of God) versus everlasting (God is in time, but without a temporal beginning or end).

A technical term that these philosophers use about God is that God has the greatest or maximal com-possible set of attributes. "Com-possible" means that the attributes can be had (or be exemplified) of the same being at the same time. Philosophers in the perfect being tradition include Jews, Christians, and Muslims (and some theistic Hindus). If interested, the work of T.V. Morris is quite accessible.

Some theologians and

Some theologians and philosophers would say that religious devotion to anything less than a perfect being amounts to idolatry, and a less-than-omniscient or less than omnibenevolent or less-than-omnipotent being would be less than a perfect being.

My own view is that this is a view that only someone in the grip of a theory could love. I rather doubt that most believers give much thought at all to the difference between omni-God, as it's sometimes put, and a being so far beyond us that, perfect or not, deserves their profoundest devotion. (Whether there actually is such a being is a separate matter, and not the subject of these comments.)

Perhaps there's one exception. Perhaps a being that was less than morally perfect couldn't be the object of a non-idolatrous religious devotion. That's a subject for an interesting conversation, but I'm not convinced that even this is right. So I think your question is a good one, and I"m inclined to think you're right.

Question Perhaps a semantic quibble, perhaps a more deeply-rooted consideration.... Why is the Deity so frequently portrayed as "all-"powerful, "all-"knowing, etc. Is there some really fundamental reason why the Deity cannot be "very" powerful" and know "quite a bit indeed"? Accepted:March 25, 2020