(April 30, 2015 at 12:57 pm)Tonus Wrote:(April 30, 2015 at 12:19 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: The problem is that god is initially described in terms of omniscience and omnipotence, and is still described by Christians of all flavors as being perfect.I'm not so sure about that. I think that the god of the Bible is pretty poorly defined, and there isn't really a place where a comprehensive description can be found. As with so much of the Bible, the bits and pieces that are scattered all about can be taken to create a pretty wide range of gods. It just depends on which bits you select and which you leave out. You could probably use several different verses to show god to be a normal human being, and several others to show him as an unstoppable force of nature.
Genesis 17:
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.
God is described as "almighty" many times in the Bible; for more examples, see:
https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch...ersion=KJV
Jeremiah 32:
17 Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
So we seem to have omnipotence there.
Psalm 147:
5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
1 John 3:
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
So we seem to have omniscience there.
But, you are right, it is scattered about, and there are other verses and stories that contradict such a description of God.
Given the actions of God in the Bible, we know he is evil, no matter how many fools describe him as being good (including fools in the Bible).
For those who need it, when speaking of imaginary characters, one still judges them to be good or bad or whatever; superman, for example, is described as good; his enemies are described as bad. Of course, they are fictional, but we still describe them.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
