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Old 09-13-2004, 09:09 PM   #30 (permalink)
analog
Banned
 
The number of logical fallacies in the opening post is enough so that I feel I can't respond to any of them. The first one that jumps out at me as obvious as shit is this one...

Quote:
1. "All evil comes from (imperfect) humans"
This argument is a) false and b) irrelevant.

False: The existence of natural evil (such as famine, earthquakes, etc.), shows us that the premise of this argument is simply false.

Irrelevant: Even if it were true, all that this would imply was that God created us and this world, in the knowledge that some of us would be the cause of evil. If he were all-good and all-powerful, he would have created it differently. The original argument still stands.
First of all, "evil" is a quality of sentient beings. A hurricane is not alive, therefore cannot be "evil". Also, "evil" (in the way you use it) would dictate that evil is universal, and absolute. You might consider the actions of a "praying mantis" (an insect who kills its partner after mating) to be "evil", but I assure you that the process is essential to the species' survival. How, then, could that be considered evil?

Also, knowing "everything" does not necessarily mean God is a universal prognosticator. He could simply know every possible outcome, given a set of variables- and He may even know the probabilities of our actions, based on our personalities, environment, etc. Well-calculated assumptions are much different than being able to say, "at 2:01:57 am tomorrow morning, analog will roll over twice in bed". Again, being all-knowing simply means you know everything that could happen, not every specific thing that WILL happen. There's no way to prove that "all-knowing" means being able to predict the future. As it is, there is nothing to stand on here.

Oh, and point (if we are calling them that) 7 is completely senseless... do you seriously think omniscience falls victim to something as fallible as logic? "Logic" is defied on a daily basis by normal human beings... I fail to see how an all-powerful being would be hindered by a human-created concept such as "logic". Suicide, homocide, genocide, racism, rape, and other horrendous crimes are all illogical actions taken by human beings- if we can defy logic so easily, there is no doubt in my mind that God has nothing to do with the concept of logic, let alone is affected negatively by it. Omniscience > all, to nerd it up a little.

Discuss.

Last edited by analog; 09-13-2004 at 09:19 PM..
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