Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Omnipotence (from Latin root Omni Potens: "all power") is unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to God. For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]]

In the philosophy of most Western monotheistic religions, omnipotence is listed as one of God's characteristics among many, including omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]] A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character Omnipresence is the ability to be present in every place at any and/or every time unbounded or universal presence Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite Benevolence " Since he was God made flesh, Jesus was also said to be omnipotent. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE)

Contents

Meanings of omnipotence

Between people of different faiths, or indeed even between people of the same faith, the term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in These positions include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. God is able to do anything, i. e. the answer to "can God do x" is always "yes", regardless of what x may be. However this leads to obvious contradictions and is a view rarely held by theologians. The omnipotence paradox is a family of related Paradoxes having to do with the question of what an Omnipotent being can do
  2. God is able to do anything Aquinas [1].
  3. God is able to do anything that God chooses to do[2].
  4. God is able to do anything that is in accord with His own nature (thus, for instance, if it is a logical consequence of God's nature that what God speaks is truth, then God is not able to lie). A lie (also called prevarication) is a type of Deception in the form of an untruthful statement especially with the intention to deceive others often with the further
  5. Hold that it is part of God's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for God to go against His own laws unless there were a reason to do so. [3]

Under many philosophical definitions of the term "God", senses 2, 3 and 4 can be shown to be equivalent. However, on all understandings of Omnipotence, it is generally held that God is able to intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics, since they are not part of his nature, but the principles on which he has created the physical world. However many modern scholars (such as John Polkinghorne) hold that it is part of God's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for God to go against His own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so. John Polkinghorne, [3]

Scholastic definition

Thomas Aquinas acknowledged difficulty in comprehending God's power. Aquinas wrote that while "all confess that God is omnipotent. . . it seems difficult to explain in what God's omnipotence precisely consists. " In the scholastic understanding, omnipotence is generally understood to be compatible with certain limitations upon God's power, as opposed to implying infinite abilities. There are certain things that even an omnipotent God cannot do. Medieval theologians drew attention to some fairly trivial examples of restrictions upon the power of God. The statement "God can do anything" is only sensible with an assumed suppressed clause, "that implies the perfection of true power. " This standard scholastic answer allows that creaturely acts such as walking can be performed by humans but not by God. Rather than an advantage in power, human acts such as walking, sitting or giving birth were possible only because of a defect in human power. The ability to sin, for example, is not a power but a defect or an infirmity. Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral Rule, or the state of having committed such a violation In response to questions of God performing impossibilities (such as making square circles) Aquinas says that "Nothing which implies contradiction falls under the omnipotence of God. " [1]

In recent times, C. S. Lewis has adopted a scholastic position in the course of his work The Problem of Pain. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963 The Problem of Pain is a 1940 book by C S Lewis, in which he seeks to provide an intellectual Christian response to questions about Suffering Lewis follows Aquinas' view on contradiction:

His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words 'God can. The question of free will '. . . It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

– Lewis, 18

Rejection or limitation of omnipotence

Some monotheists reject the view that God is or could be omnipotent, or take the view that, by choosing to create creatures with freewill, God has chosen to limit divine omnipotence. In Conservative and Reform Judaism, and some movements within Protestant Christianity, including process theology and open theism, God is said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion (for open theism, this is a matter of choice--God could act miraculously, and perhaps on occasion does so--while for process theism it is a matter of necessity--creatures have inherent powers that God cannot, even in principle, override). Conservative Judaism (also known as Masorti Judaism in Israel and Europe) is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently subjected to vandalism and the insertion of personal opinions Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical Process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947 Open theism is a theological movement that has developed within Evangelical and Post-evangelical Protestant Christianity as a response to certain God is manifest in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, not necessarily by miracles or violations of the laws of nature. A miracle is an event believed to be caused by interposition of Divine intervention by a Supernatural being in the Universe by which the ordinary operation

The rejection of omnipotence often follows from either philosophical or scriptural considerations, discussed below.

Philosophical grounds

Process theology rejects unlimited omnipotence on a philosophical basis, arguing that omnipotence as classically understood would be less than perfect, and is therefore incompatible with the idea of a perfect God.

The idea is grounded in Plato's oft-overlooked statement that "Being is power. "

My notion would be, that anything which possesses any sort of power to affect another, or to be affected by another, if only for a single moment, however trifling the cause and however slight the effect, has real existence; and I hold that the definition of being is simply power

– Plato, 247E [2]

From this premise, Charles Hartshorne argues further that:

Power is influence, and perfect power is perfect influence . Charles Hartshorne ( June 5, 1897 &ndash October 9, 2000) was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the Philosophy . . power must be exercised upon something, at least if by power we mean influence, control; but the something controlled cannot be absolutely inert, since the merely passive, that which has no active tendency of its own, is nothing; yet if the something acted upon is itself partly active, then there must be some resistance, however slight, to the "absolute" power, and how can power which is resisted be absolute?

– Hartshorne, 89

The argument can be stated as follows:

1) If a being exists, then it must have some active tendency
2) If beings have some active tendency, then they have some power to resist God
3) If beings have the power to resist God, then God does not have absolute power

For example, though someone might control a lump of jelly-pudding almost completely, the inability of that pudding to stage any resistance renders that person's power rather unimpressive. Power can only be said to be great if it is over something that has defenses and its own agenda. If God's power is to be great, it must therefore be over beings that have at last some of their own defenses and agenda.

Thus, if God does not have absolute power, God must therefore embody some of the characteristics of power, and some of the characteristics of persuasion. This view is known as dipolar theism. In Process theology Dipolar theism is the position that in order to conceive a perfect God one must conceive Him as embodying the "good" in sometimes-opposing characteristics

The most popular works espousing this point are from Harold Kushner (in Judaism). Harold S Kushner is a prominent American Rabbi aligned with the progressive wing of Conservative Judaism. The need for a modified view of omnipotence was also articulated by Alfred North Whitehead in the early 20th century and expanded upon by the aforementioned philosopher Charles Hartshorne. Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, Hartshorne proceeded within the context of the theological system known as process theology.

Scriptural grounds

In the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, as well as several other versions, in Revelation 19:6 it is stated ". Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου . . the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (the original Greek word is παντοκράτωρ, "all-mighty" [4]). Although much of the narrative of the Old Testament describes God as interacting with creation primarily through persuasion, and only occasionally through force. In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. A primary New Testament text used to assert the limit of God's power is Paul's assertion that God cannot tell a lie [3]. Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and Thus, it is argued, there is no scriptural reason to adhere to omnipotence, and the adoption of the doctrine is merely a result of the synthesis of Hellenic and early Christian thought. Hellenic philosophy and Christianity refers to the complex interaction between Hellenistic philosophy and Early Christianity during first four centuries A

Many other verses in the Bible do assert God's omnipotence without actually using the word itself. There are several times in the Bible when God is called simply "Almighty", showing that the Bible supports the belief in an omnipotent God. Some such verses are listed below:

Psalms 33:8-9: Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

Genesis 17:1: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (The Hebrew word used here is "shadday" [5])

Jeremiah 32:27: Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

At his command a storm arose and covered the sea. (Psalm 107:25)

Paradoxes of omnipotence

Main article: Omnipotence Paradox

Belief that God can do absolutely anything can be thought to yield certain logical paradoxes. Psalms ( Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים, or "praises" is a book of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) included The omnipotence paradox is a family of related Paradoxes having to do with the question of what an Omnipotent being can do A paradox is a true statement or group of statements that leads to a Contradiction or a situation which defies intuition; or inversely A simple example goes as follows: Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it? If he can, then the rock is now unliftable, limiting God's power. But if he cannot, then he is still not omnipotent. This question cannot be answered using formal logic due to its self-referential nature. See liar paradox and Godel's incompleteness theorem. In Philosophy and Logic, the liar paradox, known to the ancients as the pseudomenon, encompasses Paradoxical statements such as "This In Mathematical logic, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, proved by Kurt Gödel in 1931 are two Theorems stating inherent limitations of all but the most This problem led in the High Middle Ages to developing the concept of mathematical infinity, and laid the basis for infinitesimal calculus. The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 Infinity (symbolically represented with ∞) comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness Calculus ( Latin, calculus, a small stone used for counting is a branch of Mathematics that includes the study of limits, Derivatives Combining omnipotence with omniscience can yield the difficulty of whether or not God can pose a question to which he would not know the answer.

Augustine, in his City of God, argued that God could not do anything that would make God non-omnipotent:

For He is called omnipotent on account of His doing what He wills, not on account of His suffering what He wills not; for if that should befall Him, He would by no means be omnipotent. Wherefore, He cannot do some things for the very reason that He is omnipotent. [6]

Thus Augustine argued that God could not do anything or create any situation that would in effect make God not God.

Others have argued that (alluding to C. S. Lewis' argument above), that when talking about omnipotence, referencing "a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it" is nonsense just as much as referencing "a square circle. " So asking "Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it?" is just as much nonsense as asking "Can God draw a square circle?" Therefore the question (and therefore the perceived paradox) is meaningless.

There is also the argument that omnipotency breaks logic. Meaning, "God can make a rock so heavy God can not lift it, and lift it anyways because he is omnipotent. " It is the only way to properly explain omnipotency as to be able to do everything.

Uncertainty and other views

All the above stated claims of power are all based on scriptual grounds and upon empirical human perception. A central concept in Science and the Scientific method is that all Evidence must be empirical, or empirically based that is dependent on evidence This perception is limited to our senses. Senses are the physiological methods of Perception. The senses and their operation classification and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields The power of God is related to its existence; for more info on the proof on the existence of God and methods see Existence of God. Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers theologians and others There are however other ways of perception like: reason, intuition, revelation, divine inspiration, religious experience, mystical states, and historical testimony. Reason involves the ability to think understand and draw Conclusions in an Abstract way as in Human thinking Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Religious Experience (also known as a spiritual, Sacred, or mystical experience is an altered state of consciousness where an Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity

According to the Hindu philosophy the essence of God or Brahman can never be understood or known since Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object. Brahman ( bráhman-, Nominative bráhma sa ब्रह्म is a concept of Hinduism. [7]

So presuming there is a god-like entity consciently taking actions, we cannot know the limits of God's powers. [8]

Since the current laws of physics are only known to be valid in this universe, it is possible that the laws of physics are different in parallel universes, giving a God-like entity, more power. If the number of universes is unlimited, than the power of a certain God-like entity is also unlimited, since the laws of physics may be different in other universes, and accordingly [9] making this entity omnipotent. Unfortunately concerning a multiverse there is a lack of empirical correlation. To the extreme there are theories about realms beyond this multiverse (Nirvana, Chaos, Nothingness). The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible Universes (including our universe that together comprise all of Reality. In sramanic philosophy Nirvana (निर्वाण| Nirvāṇa; निब्बान Nibbāna; Prakrit: णिव्वाण Chaos (derived from the Ancient Greek, Chaos) typically refers to Unpredictability, and is the antithesis of Cosmos. Nothing is a concept that describes the lack or absence of anything at all

Also trying to develop a theory to explain, assign or reject omnipotence on grounds of logic has little merit, since being omnipotent would mean the omnipotent being is above logic. A view supported by René Descartes [10] He issues this idea in his Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditations on First Philosophy (subtitled In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated) is a philosophical treatise written

It can also be debated that God, assuming there is a God-like entity, is consciously taking actions. It could be concluded from an emanationism[11] [12] point of view, that all actions and creations by God are simply flows of divine energy (the flowing Tao in conjunction with qi is often seen as a river[13]; Dharma (Buddhism) the law of nature discovered by Buddha has no beginning or end. Emanationism is Platonic monism and an idea in the Cosmology or Cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems Tao ( 道, Pinyin Dào) is a metaphysical concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more generally in ancient Chinese philosophy In traditional Chinese culture, qi (zh [[wikt氣 氣]] Pinyin qì, Wade-Giles ch'i Jyutping Dhamma ( Pāli: धम्म or Dharma (धर्म in Buddhism has two primary meanings the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder ) Pantheism and/or panentheism sees the universe/multiverse as the body of God, making God everybody and everything. Pantheism ( Greek: πάν ( 'pan') = all and θεός ( 'theos') = God it literally means " God is All Panentheism (from Greek (pân "all" (en "in" and (Theós "God" "all-in-God" is a belief system So if one does something, actually God is doing it. We are God's means according to this view.

In the Taoist religious or philosophical tradition, the Tao is in some ways equivalent to God or the logos. Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion The Tao is understood to have inexhaustible power, yet that power is simply another aspect of its weakness.

Notes

  1. ^ Summa Theologica link here
  2. ^ eg St Augustine City of God
  3. ^ a b This is a consistent theme of Polkinghorne's work, see eg Polkinghorne's Science and Religion.
  4. ^ Strong's Greek Dictionary: 3841. pantokrator (pan-tok-rat'-ore)
  5. ^ Strong's Hebrew Dictionary: 7706. Shadday (shad-dah'-ee)
  6. ^ City of God, Book 5, Chapter 10
  7. ^ brahmano hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14. 27
  8. ^ Since this article deals on the all power of God, it would be logic to assign God both sexes. Since having only one sex would make God less powerful and thus no longer all-powerful. This article is also not (only) on omnipotence of the biblical God, there are other monotheistic religions who consider their God having both sexes (Shaktism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism). Shaktism ( Sanskrit: Śāktaṃ sa शाक्तं lit "doctrine of power" or "doctrine of the Goddess") is a denomination of Shaivism, also spelled "Saivism" names the oldest of the four sects of Hinduism. Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu or its associated avatars principally as Rama and These aspect are not meant literally, but are aspects of divinity to illustrate a duality just as the Tao in Taoism consists of Yin and Yang. Tao ( 道, Pinyin Dào) is a metaphysical concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more generally in ancient Chinese philosophy Taoism (pronounced /ˈdaʊɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊɪzəm/ also spelled '''Daoism''') refers to a variety of related Philosophical and Religious traditions Also an anthropocentric perspective seems at odds with many philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Leibniz, etc,. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21,
  9. ^ String Theory and Parallel universes
  10. ^ Descartes' Ontological Argument
  11. ^ Catholic view on emationism
  12. ^ Hindu view on emationism
  13. ^ Tao Te Ching Chapter LXI Verse 140 |Comments on the Tao Te Ching

References

See also

External links

In the Philosophy of religion and Theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of Evil or Suffering in the world Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS is a Non-denominational, evangelical Protestant Seminary dedicated to training current and future leaders

Dictionary

omnipotence

-noun

  1. Unlimited power; commonly attributed to a deity or deities
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic