God is not the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent being some people have come to think of when they hear the name God. The Bible does not even reflect this type of transcendent God that is so deeply ingrained in Christianity (and perhaps the Islamic faith). The God reflected in the Bible (at least the Old Testament which is the core of all three Abrahamic traditions) is a God who is not only learning to deal with his children, but a father who is coming to terms with his need to change for his children.
The God of the Abrahamic traditions is not a Omni-God. He can not be omnipotent because, God would have been able to find another way to get the Israelites out of Egypt other then the slaughter of the first born sons of Egypt (Exodus 11) (reckon the wording on this passage is troublesome as it clearly states God meant to “harden the Pharaohs heart” (Exodus 7:3), which suggests this was just a show of power). He is not omniscient for the simple fact that an all-knowing being should be able to get the value of pi correct (I Kings 7:23). He is definitely not omnibenevolent because he would not have regretted making humans and acted on the regret as he did when he perpetrated the flood (Genesis 6:5-8) nor would he have given in to temptation knowing the horrendous things Satan was going to do in
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The parenthood of God is no different. God created us in his image (Genesis 1:27) so he could communicate, interact, and have relationships with us. God also gave us a responsibility, to work and take care of his garden (Genesis 2:15). God also made us with social intent (i.e., to interact, communicate and have relations with one another) (Genesis 2:18). This shows God wanted us to have relationships with each other and him. God from this start has continually gone through a change, of learning what to do and what not to do when it comes to his children. God in this sense is learning what morality is and going through a moral
The will of God and the will of humans are two themes in Zora Neale Hurston's amazing work of art, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Not only do both themes play an essential part in the tone of the novel, but they also play into every other major theme of the book. Among these themes are: self-discovery, love, independence, and nature's power in one's life. Both Janie's personal will, and the will of God in this story are used to show the strengths and weakness of Janie as well the rest of the characters. The will of God is seen frequently throughout the novel in order to test Janie and her will. God's will is also seen leading other major and minor characters in the book. The wills of both God and Janie are the guiding forces within the novel and conflict with each other throughout the story to create the backbone of this tale.
or character of God, and that the morally right action is the one that God commands or
Struggle for Self-Realization in Their Eyes Watching God. Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, uses Janie’s experiences to show her struggle for self-realization. Hurston’s life is similar to Janie’s in how they are searching for love and self-realization. During Hurston’s childhood (1890’s), her father gave much attention to her sister, and she was jealous of her; Janie also felt “unloved” by Nanny, her grandmother. When Hurston was young, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida, where her dad became the mayor.
There is evil. 3. So, God does not exist”. Since there is evil, then that means God does not exist. So there is no loving and powerful God. However, if there is a God then he is not all loving and powerful. Daniel Howard-Snyder states in his article “God, Evil, And Suffering,”: “We would have to say God lacks power and knowledge to such an extent that He can 't prevent evil. And there lies the trouble. For how could God have enough power and knowledge to create and sustain the physical universe if He can 't even prevent evil? How could He be the providential governor of the world if He is unable to do what even we frequently do, namely prevent evil?” (5). This statement argues that God is not all powerful because he is unable to prevent evil in the world. Daniel Howard-Snyder then argues that: “Would a perfectly good being always prevent evil as far as he can? Suppose he had a reason to permit evil, a reason that was compatible with his never doing wrong and his being perfect in love, what I 'll call a justifying reason. For example, suppose that if he prevented evil completely, then we would miss out on a greater good, a good whose goodness was so great that it far surpassed the badness of evil. In that case, he might not prevent evil as far as he can, for he would have a justifying reason to permit it” (5). Even if God had a reason to allow evil, he who is all loving and powerful would want the least amount of people to suffer and feel pain. Since God knows
Hypothetically speaking, if there was a machine in the world that could able project the image of a person choosing to do tomorrow. Wouldn’t that entail tomorrow this person must do what was known in advance? In the end, despite the planning and deliberating, this person must choose exactly as the machine projected. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: “Does free will exist, or it just merely an illusion?” But, no machine with such capability existed in this world, and the only one with such power is God. The argument of God’s omniscient and human free will has gone for thousands of years, the core of this argument is if God was claimed to be all-knowing, hence in possession of infallible foreknowledge of human actions, therefore, humans should not have free will. The concept of God is all-knowing and human have free will is inherently contradictory, therefore, they cannot coexist. This argument implicated predestination and often resonated with the dilemma of determinism, because God was supposed to have given mankind free will.
If God is omniscient, he would know how to make this world the best possible world.
The novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston clearly is a great book. In the book a young woman named Janie who was raised and married off by her grandmother. At first, all Janie knows of marriage and love is what her grandmother tells her which is that the only thing that is important is if he has land. As Janie goes on her journey of her life and re-marries, she finds that everybody in the town (and in general) has their own belief towards the role of their spouses in marriage. The reader notices Janie struggle in finding herself and over time Janie begins to develop her own ideas and ideals. In Their Eyes Were Watching God each character has their own beliefs towards marriage which in turn develops a viewpoint of how marriage should be and what it shouldn’t be. “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (Hurston) explores this marriage issue by showing Janie’s failing love endeavors, showing her real true love, and the after-effects of losing someone dear.
The Divine Command Theory is an ethical theory that basically proposes that God is the sole distinguisher between what is right and what is wrong. The textbook describes that under this theory, God commands what is moral and forbids what is immoral. Critics of this theory state that if God is the sole decision maker of morality, immoral actions could be acceptable if He willed it, and thus, God’s authority would be subjective and arbitrary. However, proponents contend that God would not allow immoral actions because he is omnipotent and all good. To follow the Divine Command Theory, one must believe and trust that it is in God’s nature to do good, and He will not act against his nature. By believing in this, one would dispute the critics’ argument by proving that God his not making
In Judaism, God is seen as having a contractual relationship with the Jewish people where they must obey his holy laws in return for their status of the chosen people. God rewards or punishes Jewish people based on whether they obey or disobey his will. In parts of the Old Testament, however, God does show mercy or forgiveness, and in later interpretations God’s laws such as the Ten Commandments are followed
In Judaism, God is seen as having a contractual relationship with the Jewish people where they must obey his holy laws in return for their status of the chosen people. God rewards or punishes Jewish people based on whether they obey or disobey his will. In parts of the Old Testament, however, God does show mercy or forgiveness, and in later interpretations God’s laws such as the Ten Commandments are followed not only out of loyalty to God but also because of their high moral character.
There are certain ways that a parent should behave in order to let the child understand that his relationship with God is extremely important. The quote “Parents, expressing love to their children by physical warmth and tenderness, greatly contribute to their children’s later comprehension of Refuge, Strength, and Helper as attributes of God. The parents’ faith in His perfect love and perfect sovereignty lays the foundation of the home in which the child is growing up” (Elliot, 1992, pg.
The concept of God can be a difficult one to grasp especially in today's world - a world in which anyone that believes in God is trying to define exactly what God is. To even attempt to grasp such a concept, one must first recognize his own beliefs in respect to the following questions: Is God our creator? Is God omnipotent (all-powerful) or omniscient (all-knowing) or both? Does God care? Is God with us? Does God interfere with life on earth? These questions should be asked and carefully answered if one should truly wish to identify his specific beliefs in God's existence and persistence.
In works based on the Christian religion God is often portrayed as all-knowing and all-powerful. This is how God is portrayed
...ed a part to him. First we see God as omnipotent then we see God asking where Adam and Eve are hiding (Not being omnipotent). With the creation of mankind God loses some part of his Godliness and he gains some humanity. God has a little human in himself and we have a little God in us. But the main point still is the same, God is the authority over man and will remain this way. I also feel that the God in the bible is truly no different than the Gods of Greece for example. The God of ancient Greece acted just like humans, the only difference was that they were immortal. The God of the bible seems to act just like humans, shows love, anger, regret, learns from mistakes and so forth. So in the end God shows flaws and learns from mistakes. God is like humans, maybe this is why we don?t understand God sometimes because we can?t understand other people and their actions.
God on Trial is a movie that asks whether God is to blame for all of the suffering going on at Auschwitz. Auschwitz is a concentration camp located in Poland where there were numerous men being harshly abused. At the beginning of the movie all of the men going into the concentration camp have to go through a selection. Each individual gets a card and the doctor is the one who determines who gets to go into the gas chambers. In order to make room for all of the new prisoners that are going to be living at the blockhouse, they have to get rid of the old ones.